Yankees GM Brian Cashman (Anthony J. Causi)
NOT HIS CALL: Yankees GM Brian Cashman (inset) was against the trade that brought Alfonso Soriano back to the Stadium. (
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Alfonso became the second straight Soriano that Brian Cashman advised Yankees ownership not to acquire — and was overruled on nevertheless.
Just as with the signing of free agent Rafael Soriano, the general manager believed Yankees assets could be spent better than on Alfonso Soriano, two executives not affiliated with the Yankees told The Post.
Cashman would not directly confirm what he advised Hal Steinbrenner, but told The Post: “I would say we are in a desperate time. Ownership wants to go for it. I didn’t want to give up a young arm [Corey Black]. But I understand the desperate need we have for offense. And Soriano will help us. The bottom line is this guy makes us better. Did ownership want him? Absolutely, yes. Does he make us better? Absolutely, yes. This is what Hal wants, and this is why we are doing it.”
In a press briefing yesterday to announce Soriano’s acquisition, Cashman never directly spoke of his vote against the trade. But when it came to future possible deals to help this year’s club, he said a few times he does not like to give up prospects and he “might need ownership’s help” to convince him to finalize such a trade.
Cashman became GM in 1998, but took on greater authority in 2005 when an ailing George Steinbrenner agreed to draw a more structured flow chart of how baseball decisions would be made. Still, since then, there have been times when Cashman has been overruled.
For example, he recommended the Yankees not re-sign Alex Rodriguez when the third baseman opted out of his contract following the 2007 campaign. He was quite public after the 2010 season in his belief the Yankees should not sign Rafael Soriano.
Last offseason, he advised ownership to re-sign Russell Martin and ink free agent Nate Schierholtz, and was against the re-signing of Ichiro Suzuki. Multiple sources have told me Martin was willing to return to the Yankees on a one-year contract. The sources said Martin shopped himself to other big-market clubs such as the Cubs for one year because he was hesitant to go to the Pirates, who offered him two years.
Martin signed a two-year, $15 million pact with the Pirates and has been an instrumental piece in what looks like their best team in two decades.
According to multiple executives, Schierholtz’s agents were seriously weighing signing with the Yankees, but wanted playing-time assurances and guarantees the Yankees would not sign fellow lefty swingers Josh Hamilton or Suzuki. But Yankees ownership was enamored with Ichiro’s game and name, and badly wanted him back in The Bronx.
Schierholtz signed a one-year, $2.25 million contract with the Cubs, for whom he had hit 13 homers with an .864 OPS as play began last night.
Ichiro was signed to a two-year, $13 million contract by the Yankees. It means the Yankees have $11.5 million tied up between Ichiro ($6.5 million) and Soriano ($5 million) next year, when both will be in their late-30s and potentially no more than part-timers. It also comes at a time when every penny counts if the Yankees are going to get under that $189 million luxury-tax threshold (they would get a huge boost if Alex Rodriguez served a long suspension in 2014 because the salary he would lose does not count toward the luxury tax).
I asked Cashman whether his job got trickier having two players he did not seem to want (Ichiro and Soriano) taking up a nice chunk of salary next season if he has to hit the $189 million mandate.
“That is all for another day,” he said.
Rios rejected Yankees
Before obtaining Alfonso Soriano, the Yankees checked in with the White Sox about the very available Alex Rios, but were told the righty-hitting outfielder has a partial no-trade clause that includes the Yankees and he would not waive it to go to The Bronx.
The Yankees also asked about the Giants’ Hunter Pence and the Phillies’ Michael Young, and were told both were not yet available.
* The Cubs have been, by far, the most active sellers. They decided to act as quickly as possible to trade Matt Garza and, especially, Scott Feldman because they were concerned the prices would come down on starters when and if the White Sox’s Jake Peavy and the Royals’ Ervin Santana were pushed harder for trades. They also wanted to get rid of as much of Soriano’s contract as possible and dealt Scott Hairston to the Nationals.
But they are not done. Sources say they are listening to multiple teams about outfielder Nate Schierholtz, and are very open to moving relievers Kevin Gregg and James Russell.
* The Nationals have had tons of trouble scoring runs, but because they have pretty much a set eight-man positional group, they are hoping they can solve their problem internally. Instead, they are more seriously looking at a starting pitcher.
The Nats like how young Taylor Jordan has performed, but know he is going to push up near his innings cap at some point. In addition, they are not overly encouraged Ross Detwiler can recover effectively from a disk problem in his back.
A-Rod secedes from union input on call
One of the strange elements of Alex Rodriguez’s bizarre actions of the past few days went by with little attention — but was noticed by several major league executives.
On Thursday, Rodriguez held a conference call with Yankees president Randy Levine and general manager Brian Cashman, some medical people and his own lawyer, Jordan Siev. The executives who called me pointed out what was missing: a union official.
None of the executives could remember a time when there was a nasty dispute between a team and a player in which an important conversation was held without a union official participating to make sure the player’s rights were not violated. The executives pointed out Siev’s background was in business litigation, but he might not have a handle on the collective bargaining agreement or baseball history/precedents.
A person briefed on the call said A-Rod told the Yankees the union said it was busy. Two union officials I spoke to said that was nonsense. In fact, the union was concerned whether the call itself ran afoul of the basic agreement because Siev is not a certified agent.
It served as yet another example of Rodriguez not adhering to accepted protocols/rules, particularly in the past week. And since Rodriguez’s big problem currently is MLB going after him for ignoring its rules on illegal performance enhancers, does he really want to give the sense — even subliminally — that rules do not matter to him?