Hal Steinbrenner promises, via the Associated Press, a “very deep dive” into every single thing the Yankees are doing. Since he’s anything but a shallow Hal, I believe he will indeed authorize a close look at everything, from the front office to the bench to hopefully even the medical staff, which at some point may need to explain how Anthony Rizzo’s three-day alleged “neck injury” turned into a season-killing concussion nightmare — for him and the team (he’s that important)!
Indeed, a deep dive is necessary following what, for most organizations, would be a disappointment, but for them is a “disaster” (hat tip to general manager Brian Cashman for his honest phrasing.)
For now they can’t even agree on how bad things are. While Cashman correctly called the season what it is, the habitually hopeful manager Aaron Boone said after their stunning three-game sweep at the nemesis Astros, “You never know what can happen.”
Whatever, the evaluation, if done properly by a serious external entity (which I hear it will be) promises to be eye-opening for an organization that’s used to winning perennially but now finds itself holding a losing record and holding down a last-place standing for the first time since 1990. For the record, that’s one of the lowest seasons in Yankees history, which included Hal’s father George’s suspension from baseball, the introduction of Stump Merrill to replace 1978 hero Bucky Dent as manager and my first year on the Yankees beat.
We will take a look here, too, but since I don’t own a $7 billion entity (real valuation estimate, not a Trump-like guesstimate), can’t employ an expert outside agency and have only 850 words, it’s not going to be a deep dive. Instead of looking at the draft, international signings and player development (issues that all will be covered by the outside group), we will concentrate on hot-button issues, and rely on observations and interviews conducted over this excruciating six months of mediocrity.
(Before we get started, let’s stipulate their draft, international signings and development are looking better over the last week, and also dispense with the nonsense that they should have summoned Jasson Dominguez, 20, earlier. Heck, he hit .254 at Double-A and played nine games at Triple-A.)
The word you hear is this: “It’s up to Hal.”
Like Hal, Aaron Boone is very different from his father Bob, the ultra-serious legendary, long-term catcher and former big-league manager. Boone the younger is an ebullient sort and natural friend to all. Unofficial word is he’s still under discussion, but Hal likes him (and so does everyone else), so the best guess is that he ultimately stays.
Boone has the potential to be a great manager someday. But the feeling here is he needs help. Joe Torre is one of the smartest people in the game but to become a Hall of Fame manager he needed Don Zimmer whispering in his ear. How about bringing in someone to help with those bullpen moves. I’d recommend Torre, but he’s too smart and doesn’t need the job.
Hal also isn’t impulsive, so please don’t expect the biggest change of all. No, Cashman isn’t going anywhere.
Yes, I know we saw legendarily loyal White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf fire longtime honcho Ken Williams, who he said was “like a son” to him. Cashman is probably something like a brother to Hal, but better, he’s a brother who’s made the playoffs 21 of 26 years.
There’s little doubt Cashman’s in a slump, however. Trades for Josh Donaldson, Joey Gallo, Frankie Montas, extensions for Aaron Hicks and Luis Severino plus the signing of Carlos Rodon all rank from disappointments to disasters while there are far fewer recent success stories — Clay Holmes, Wandy Peralta, Jose Trevino and Rizzo (until Trevino and Rizzo went out with injuries).
Folks around the game will tell you Cashman and Co. fell too hard for analytics, and while we’ve heard too much about spin rate, velocity, launch angle and hard-hit rate (the Yankees are second to the Braves in that stat!), we can’t be sure that is the case. What we can say is this: Something’s obviously amiss. The GM isn’t going anywhere, but something needs to give there. They do have Brian Sabean, Tim Naehring, Omar Minaya and Jim Hendry on staff, old baseball people all. Maybe defer to them more often?
Since I am not a doctor (and wasn’t even especially good at science) I can’t be sure the Yankees messed up the Rizzo situation. But they do need to find out why they determined he was good to play after suffering what looked like an obvious concussion — he staggered after colliding with Fernando Tatis Jr. — and he hasn’t been himself since.
We get it. Rizzo is one of the toughest guys in the game. And we can’t know whether his assurance that he was OK caused the Yankees to rush him back, but something obviously went terribly wrong. And this is far from the only horror story. According to The Athletic, they’re on pace to finish in the top third for IL stays a seventh consecutive season. Winning used to be the given. Now injuries are.