TAMPA — Joe Girardi fielded a technical question involving late-spring contractual language and sent out a one-word, across-the-room SOS — “Cash.”
About 20 reporters spun around in the manager’s office to face Brian Cashman. The Yankees general manager was sprawled on a couch, his en-casted right leg propped up and his crutches leaning nearby.
And that, ladies and gents, was a snapshot of the Yankees of this moment: Pain, Provisions and Pinstripes.
Their time in Florida began with disbelief that they were actually going with Francisco Cervelli and Chris Stewart at catcher and ended with a first baseman who was on either a three- or four-day tryout — depending upon the time of day you asked — kind of, sort of making the team. Actually, as the Yankees completed their 44-day Sunshine State odyssey, the status of the catching felt like issue No. 658.
Alex Rodriguez, the ghost of Yankees present, never showed up, Curtis Granderson stayed behind and Mark Teixeira left with the team, but not to play. Phil Hughes — in “the best shape of my life” — hurt his back in a drill covering first base and will begin the year on the disabled list. Derek Jeter never played more than five innings at shortstop and his left ankle is so achy there is no telling exactly when he will be ready to play.
Fittingly, Boone Logan got smoked by a line drive on his hip as the innings ticked down yesterday on the Yankees’ Grapefruit schedule. Amazingly — for this camp — no bones fractured and Logan, who had elbow issues earlier in camp, might actually make it to the Opening Day roster.
He will be joined in all likelihood by four players — Ben Francisco, Brennan Boesch, Vernon Wells and Lyle Overbay — obtained in the last 17 days because their previous teams had no use for them. That the Yankees did speaks to their desperation.
Cashman portrayed this as business as usual. Of course, his business this spring including breaking his leg in a skydiving accident.
Tongue in cheek aside, I applaud the Yankees front office for recognizing their deficiencies and trying to upgrade, even incrementally, wherever and whenever possible. In what projects as a tight AL East race, uncovering even an extra win or two really could matter.
As Cashman said, “It is the GM’s job, when he sees a problem, to fix it.”
Nevertheless, the roster scrambling that led all the way up to the last seconds in Florida — and is not yet done — feeds the growing perception of the Yankees heading for a downfall, cloaked in anxiety that they just are not good enough.
Look, there is always a touch of frenzy on the last day of camp, with so many bodies and boxes moving out and usually a roster decision or two in play. But this was beyond the norm.
OK, it was not 1999, when on the final day Hideki Irabu did not cover first, George Steinbrenner called him a fat pussy toad, Irabu essentially quit, executives tried for hours to coax Irabu to get on the charter, interim manager Don Zimmer all but had a nervous breakdown in public, David Cone and Chili Davis reacted to the delay by throwing a pizza party for the players and media in the clubhouse, and no one was sure if the Yankees ever were going to board their plane to the West Coast to, you know, begin the season.
There was no fat toad yesterday, but this was no standard end to camp. For example, two days ago, the Yankees gave Juan Rivera a stipulated $100,000 bonus that seemed to assure he was the team’s first baseman. Yesterday, he was released and said it was because he was told Overbay and Francisco were making the team.
But Girardi and Cashman would not acknowledge that. In part because the Yankees are still looking to upgrade on Overbay between now and first pitch Monday at 1 p.m against the Red Sox, who by the way released Overbay earlier this week. In other words, the Yankees’ Opening Day first baseman still might be employed by another team.
Overbay didn’t even know the Yankees were breaking camp yesterday, so his wife, Sarah, had to make the five-hour round-trip with their four kids from Tampa to their Fort Myers home to get the mandatory jacket and tie for the charter.
That he was all dressed up with somewhere to go would have seemed inconceivable a few days ago. But this spring, the Yankees seemed to transform, in many ways, from a team you pick to a pick-up team.