BRIAN Cashman is off “the big hook” and Joe Torre is off the firing line, at least for now. But both men deserve more than to be absolved of punishment. They merit praise for a Yankee turnaround from despair to distinction.
The Yankees had clinched nothing yet, a point Cashman accentuated by phone yesterday. But they have moved to the brink of winning the AL wild card and also into the psyche and rearview mirror of the Red Sox. If the Yanks secure a playoff spot, the GM and the manager should takes bows before the arrows can fly again in October.
There are many honorable items, but here is the most vital one: The maturity of both men. As a rival executive said recently, “I can’t imagine what it was like to be them in May (when the team was as much as eight games under .500). It is staggering the amount of negative noise that comes in New York (from media and fans) when your team spends that much money, has their expectations and has their history. It is bad anywhere, but in New York it is so much louder and so much more relentless. To stay the course, to stay yourself, I really admire that.”
At the worst – 14½ games back and with their jobs in peril – Cashman and Torre did not blame others, did not run from responsibility and did not lose faith in the roster. How simple would it have been for Cashman to make the pain go away, at least temporarily, by trading a prospect for a quick fix? How easy would it have been for Torre to lose the grace and serenity that has defined his Yankee stay when the screaming peaked that he should be canned?
Instead, Cashman stuck to his plan and Torre to his principles, and today they look like their team: Winners.
“Your job is to manage through it,” Cashman said. “You are paid to find a way.”
Cashman admits sleep is easier now with the Yanks 5½ up on the wild card and just 1½ down to Boston. He says, “I am thankful we are playing meaningful games.” Especially when you remember what the Yanks looked like in the first half and how brutal the assault was on the architect of this team and the manager.
“It wasn’t fun,” Cashman concedes. “You didn’t want to be me walking around the Tri-state area the first few months. It is an all-or-nothing town. There is no in between. It is good/bad, smart/stupid. There is no in between. The gray areas don’t exist. That is just how it works.”
Cashman has hardly been flawless. He is still the decision maker behind Kei Igawa and Carl Pavano, and he faces a difficult offseason because he did not want to negotiate early with Jorge Posada or Mariano Rivera. However, since gaining full authority during another dismal Yankee start early in 2005, Cashman has tied his administration to reviving the farm system, and in that area he has been dynamic.
As late as July 31, he was being pressured to give up Melky Cabrera or Ian Kennedy to “solve” the Yanks’ biggest need by obtaining Eric Gagne. Instead, Gagne went to the Red Sox and has hurt them, while the Yanks promoted Joba Chamberlain to be the main set-up man and later on Kennedy to deepen the rotation. These days the Yanks have one of the majors’ deepest systems, a 180-degree reversal from two years ago.
That is when Cashman called up Robinson Cano and Chien-Ming Wang to help resuscitate the 2005 club. But, unlike this year, the prospect faucet was otherwise dry, forcing the Yanks to recover with journeymen such as Shawn Chacon, Aaron Small and Al Leiter. That they won with the castoffs then and with the kids now reflects well on Torre and the mood he establishes with his club.
Torre also is hardly flawless, especially in his penchant to overuse favorite relievers. But he has gravitas and self-confidence, both of which were more essential than ever this year in keeping the team from falling into pity and backbiting. The idea that just any man could sit in Torre’s seat and weather the storms without flinching is ridiculous.
Torre’s steadiness and Cashman’s sturdiness abetted this Yankee turnaround. Take a bow, gentlemen.