Brian Cashman has turned the Yankees around quickly.
In one of the quickest “rebuilds” in baseball history, Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman has the New York Yankees ready to be a force for the foreseeable future following a 91 win season that included an ALCS appearance, and the acquisition of NL MVP Giancarlo Stanton during the offseason. Once upon a time, the Yankees avoided rebuild after rebuild by spending their way into contention, routinely having the highest payroll in the game. But after two straight missed playoff appearances from 2013-2014, Cashman slowly but surely began to commit to rebuilding a farm system that hadn’t been particularly strong since the days of when the famed Core Four of Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, and Jorge Posada came up and won four World Series Championships in a five year stretch. This rebuild was punctuated during the 2016 trade deadline, when rather than acting as buyers, the Yankees instead built up their farm system by trading Carlos Beltran, Aroldis Chapman, Andrew Miller, and Ivan Nova. By devoting resources to developing young talent and by making smart trades for under the radar players, Cashman has successfully repositioned the Yankees as the game’s Evil Empire once again.
Looking at the Yankees current everyday lineup, the team is peppered with successful homegrown talent. At catcher, Gary Sanchez was signed out of the Dominican Republic at the age of 16; last season, he was an All-Star and won his first Silver Slugger after hitting 33 HR, and driving in 90 runs. In the fifth round of the 2011 MLB Draft, Cashman selected Greg Bird, who although injured last season, still flashed his potential as the team’s first baseman of the future after posting an OPS above .919 in both of the Yankees playoff series. In left field, Brett Gardner has spent his entire twelve-year career with the Yankees after being selected in the third round of the 2005 draft; the 34-year-old and longest tenured Yankee on the roster had a career-high 21 home runs last season, contributing 4.9 WAR, and an epic 12-pitch at-bat to help the Yankees win the deciding Game 5 of the ALDS against the Indians. And who can forget number 99, Aaron Judge, the Yankees first-round pick in the 2013 MLB Draft who captivated the baseball world as a rookie last season, winning the Home Run Derby and Rookie of the Year Award, and finishing second in the AL MVP vote after leading the AL with 52 HR, 128 runs, and 127 walks.
In the pitching rotation and in the bullpen, Cashman’s fingerprints are all over the place through the number of players that were developed from within the Yankees system. Luis Severino broke out as the future ace of the Yankees last season, compiling 5.3 WAR after going 16-6 with a 2.98 ERA and 130 strikeouts. But not too long ago, he was a seventeen-year-old in the Dominican Republic, who Cashman signed to a $225,000 deal. Jordan Montgomery looked anything but a rookie in 2017, going 9-7 with a 3.88 ERA and 1.23 WHIP, which is more than the Yankees could have expected so soon out of taking him in the fourth round of the 2014 MLB Draft. After failing as a starter, the Yankees eighth-round pick in the 2006 MLB Draft, Dellin Betances, has made four All-Star teams in a row, and last season had a 2.87 ERA and 15.1 K/9. Although he spent time away from the team, Adam Warren came back to where he was a fourth-round pick in the 2009 MLB Draft and helped solidify the Yankees bullpen with a 2.35 ERA in 46 games. And after drafting him in 2006 and letting him walk away in free agency following the 2014 season, David Robertson came back with a vengeance for the Yankees postseason push, going 5-0 with a 1.03 ERA and 0.743 WHIP.
Not only has Cashman excelled in developing homegrown talent, but his scouting department must also receive credit for some of the buy low trades they have made over the past few seasons. When the Yankees traded Justin Wilson to the Detroit Tigers in December 2015, fans were angry that Cashman moved on from the lefty specialist rather than paying him around $1.5 million to avoid arbitration. What Yankee fans (myself included) didn’t know was that one of the pitchers they received was an 11th round pick out of the University of Louisville who would go on to become one of the game’s most dominant relief pitchers: Chad Green. While Wilson has gone 8-9 with a 3.78 ERA over the past two seasons, Green became the Yankees high leverage relief pitcher and excelled, appearing in 40 games and going 5-0 with a 1.83 ERA, 0.739 WHIP, and 13.4 K/9.
With Gary Sanchez locked in at catcher and Austin Romine a capable back up, the Yankees decided to trade John Ryan Murphy to the Twins after he hit .277/.327/.406 in 67 games. In return, the Yankees received outfielder Aaron Hicks, a 25-year-old former first-round pick who up to that point had hit .225/.306/.349 at the major league level. Since the trade, Murphy was let go by the Twins, landed in Arizona, and has struggled in his 31 games in the MLB, hitting .146/.189/.225; it is a real possibility he is done as a major league player. This past season, Hicks was given the starting center fielder nod by Joe Girardi, and until he got injured, looked like an All-Star, before finishing the year with 3.9 WAR after hitting .266/.372/.374 with 15 HR, 52 RBI, and 15 Defensive Runs Saved.
After trading top prospect Blake Rutherford and other pieces to the Chicago White Sox, The Yankees received David Robertson, Todd Frazier, and a lesser-known relief pitcher, Tommy Kahnle, as a throw-in. Of all the pieces the White Sox gave up in that trade, Kahnle and his three additional years of team control past this season are what the White Sox may regret giving up the most, as he easily could have been the team’s closer of the future. For the Yankees, Kahnle was another welcome addition to baseball’s best bullpen, with 12.2 K/9 and a 2.70 ERA in 32 games.
Not only is the Yankees major league roster loaded with homegrown talent, but looking at MLB.com’s 100 top prospects list, the Yankees are clearly set for the future, with the following players all included on the list.
Gleyber Torres, SS, #1 Overall Prospect
Chance Adams, RHP, #53 Overall Prospect
Estevan Florial, OF, #79 Overall Prospect
Justus Sheffield, LHP, #80 Overall Prospect
Miguel Andujar, 3B, #92 Overall Prospect
While these five players and Clint Frazier represent the future of the Yankees, looking down the rest of the top prospect list, you can really see just how strong of a job Brian Cashman has done in building a farm system just by seeing how many other top prospects were originally drafted or signed by Cashman.
Blake Rutherford, OF, #40 Overall Prospect
Dustin Fowler, OF, #67 Overall Prospect
Jorge Mateo, SS/OF, #98 Overall Prospect
Throughout the 1990s, 2000s, and the first half of the 2010s, Brian Cashman was mostly known as the General Manager who needed to spend money in order to put out a championship caliber team. With the Yankees an early favorite to compete for the World Series in 2018, the narrative has clearly been rewritten on Cashman, who through patience and development has put the Yankees in a position to succeed going forward.
