Results tagged ‘ Brian Cashman ’
Cashman: Rivera complication doesn’t affect 2013 return
NEW YORK – The Yankees will not elaborate on a complication found Monday after examination of Mariano Rivera’s right knee, but general manager Brian Cashman said that it is not anything that would impact the closer’s ability to pitch in the 2013 season.
“I have no comment on that, but you can certainly ask Mo about that [Wednesday] when he arrives [at Yankee Stadium],” Cashman said, adding, “It doesn’t affect next year at all. It doesn’t affect anything about next year.”
Rivera, 42, tore the anterior cruciate ligament as well as the meniscus in his right knee last Thursday at Kauffman Stadium while attempting to field a line drive in batting practice.
He was seen by team physician Dr. Chris Ahmad as well as Dr. Russell Warren and Dr. David Altchek on Monday, all of whom concurred with the diagnosis of the torn ACL and meniscus given on Thursday in Kansas City.
Rivera is expected to have season-ending surgery when the swelling on his knee dissipates, which could take two to three weeks. Cashman described Rivera as being “in good spirits,” but said that he is ruling out any return to the mound in 2012.
“All the reports I got, it’s all about next year,” Cashman said. “What he’s got is correctable. At a date yet to be scheduled, they’ll have surgery and fix it, he’ll go through the rehab process and we’ll have the player next year.”
Pettitte expected to start for Yankees on Sunday
NEW YORK – The Yankees plan to add Andy Pettitte to their active roster and have him pitch on Sunday against the Seattle Mariners, general manager Brian Cashman said.
“I think everyone is in agreement, he’s not going to benefit from any more time down there (in the Minor Leagues),” Cashman said.
The start will be the 39-year-old’s first big league outing since the 2010 ALCS. He came out of retirement this spring after briefly attending camp as a guest instructor.
“If there’s a gap between the old Andy Pettitte and what we’re going to get, I don’t know yet,” Cashman said. “It’ll be nice to get another healthy arm in the mix.”
Cashman said that manager Joe Girardi and his coaches were in agreement that Pettitte could help the big league team after reviewing reports of his last start at Triple-A.
“I think our fans are excited, Andy is excited and I’ll be excited if he plugs in and helps us,” Cashman said.
Cashman joins the Bleacher Creatures
Yankees GM Brian Cashman ventured to the outfield stands and joined the Bleacher Creatures, wearing in his disguise wig, to help out with this afternoon’s “Roll Call” before the top of the first inning.
Vinny “Bald Vinny” Milano, who leads the Roll Call before the contests at Yankee Stadium, sent out a snapshot via Twitter as evidence (thanks to Vinny for permitting us to repost it here):
Cashman: Yankees didn’t try to win AL East in 2010
You remember 2010, don’t you? That was the September that the Yankees seemed to be trotting out guys like Royce Ring, Dustin Moseley, Chad Gaudin and Jonathan Albaladejo with regularity, seeming to take their foot off the gas pedal while the Rays rolled to the American League East title.
The resulting tailspin left some players scratching their heads. As Andy Pettitte said, late in what would be his final big league season: “I know it’s been irritating for me. It’s just like, ‘What are we doing here?’ This game’s not easy, we’re trying to win. That’s all there is to it.”
Well, there was more to it, as Brian Cashman admitted on Sunday. The Yankees didn’t care if they finished first, hoping instead to get healthy for a strong run to repeat as World Series champions. Cashman explained why, saying how a second Wild Card will be good for the game.
“We conceded the division two years ago because of the previous setup,” Cashman said. “I’m not taking away from Tampa Bay’s Eastern Division title, but we didn’t try to win the division. We tried to line ourselves up for the playoffs and that worked. We wound up sweeping Minnesota and going to play the Texas Rangers two years ago because we got our guys healthy and ready to go.”
It has been proposed that baseball will add a second Wild Card to each league that would most likely include a one-game playoff to enter the Division Series, thus creating more incentive for teams to pursue their divisions.
“The division title, the way that Wild Card situation was sitting, was rendered meaningless the way the setup was,” Cashman said. “It rendered whether you were a Wild Card or a division champ, it really meant nothing more than a t-shirt and a hat. That was the reality of the circumstance.”
Cashman said that Major League Baseball took notice as teams were resting players and lining them up for the playoffs, noting that September games weren’t as meaningful as they could be — and perhaps, will soon be again.
“Bud Selig did a remarkable thing adding the wild card and I think he’s now doing another remarkable thing by enhancing the playoff push,” Cashman said. “It’s going to create a lot of buzz and excitement and meaningful games deeper into the season, as it should be. It certainly brings back the importance of being a division winner again.”
Cashman: I’m comfortable with A.J.
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman continues to stand behind A.J. Burnett, again defending the embattled right-hander as he answered fans’ questions at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn. on Tuesday.
“I am comfortable with A.J.,” Cashman told a young fan, according to ESPNNewYork.com. “He’s extremely talented and has been inconsistent, but I can tell you I’m comfortable with the effort he’s giving; I’m comfortable with everything that he does, the accountability that comes with him.
“Obviously, we signed him to have more success than he’s having, but it’s a competitive industry and as long as he’s not going to give up on himself, then I’m going to have his back the entire way.”
Burnett figures to be in the mix of contenders for the No. 5 spot in the rotation. CC Sabathia, Hiroki Kuroda, Michael Pineda and Ivan Nova will likely fill out the first four slots, in some order, leaving Burnett, Phil Hughes and Freddy Garcia to duke it out for the final opening.
“This year, we have a whole bunch of starting pitchers – knock on wood – and so we’ll see how it all shakes out, who plays in what role and where,” Cashman said, according to the website. “But if we have the ball in [Burnett's] hands, I believe that he’ll do well for us. He won one of our playoff games against Detroit and we only won two, we were trying to win three. He stepped up big in Game 4 and pushed us back to New York to give us Game 5. It’s in there and the ability is there, and he does care, so I’m going to stay with him.”
Cashman: We could trade for a DH
In a conference call with reporters discussing the Michael Pineda trade on Monday, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said that he’d be more inclined to trade from his pitching depth to acquire a designated hitter than to sign one on the open free agent market.
When the Yankees officially announce the signing of right-hander Hiroki Kuroda, they’ll have seven starters vying for five spots. CC Sabathia, Ivan Nova, Pineda, Phil Hughes, A.J. Burnett and Freddy Garcia are also in that mix.
“Maybe I use our excess pitching to find a bat,” Cashman said. “That’s a possibility. … We stretched the payroll to get [Kuroda] done, so I’m not sure what we have financially. I think we’ll look at the trade market first and foremost and see where that takes us.”
Among the DH options out there, the Yankees have reportedly heard from Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui, Vladimir Guerrero and Raul Ibanez, but are not thought to consider any of them an urgent priority.
“I think [the free agent market] would be secondary,” Cashman said. “Not that any of those players aren’t quality, but I do think it’s probably in our interest to first and foremost see what’s available in the trade market, because we have excess starter. There should be a demand and an interest at the various levels in our starting pitching that might prove beneficial.”
If the season started today, the Yankees would likely go with Andruw Jones as their DH, though they are curious about Minor League slugger Jorge Vazquez.
Pujols’ camp touched base with the Yankees
Because Dan Lozano wouldn’t have been doing his job if he hadn’t at least asked, the Yankees did have a chance to talk about Albert Pujols, general manager Brian Cashman said on Thursday.
“They touched base with me, but I said no,” Cashman said. “I gave it a nice, respectful no. We’ve made our commitments, we have guys we’re committed to, and … even though you can say he can fit on anybody’s club, realistically our money is spent in those directions. Trying to add that, how do you add that, with our commitments? You just can’t, it’s not feasible.”
Cashman said that Pujols’ camp understood the Yankees’ situation.
“Even Dan Lozano recognized [Mark] Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez, [Jesus] Montero,” Cashman said. “There’s no vacancy here. I think if you were in my chair, you’d be in the same decision-making mode.”
If your eyebrows go up at the mention of Montero alongside Pujols, Teixeira and A-Rod, Cashman was in a joking mood this morning (though, of course, they do think highly of Montero).
Asked for his reaction to Pujols’ reported agreement with the Angels, Cashman replied, “Obviously he’s one of the greatest that’s played. He makes everybody significantly better. If he played for anybody, he’d make them all significantly better. He’s a special player. I don’t know him personally, but I see what he does with that bat. It’s Montero-like.”
Ready to go in Dallas
The lobby of the Hilton Anatole was buzzing when I checked in last night, and the obvious talk of the evening was Jose Reyes’ reported agreement with the Miami Marlins, switching National League East rivals after playing his entire professional career to date in a Mets uniform.
On the Yankees’ end, everything seems much quieter, though there’s a steady stream of people who believe that Brian Cashman may just be playing possum and will be ready to strike on something at a moment’s notice. At least for the purposes of Sunday night, he was playing elf in Stamford, Conn., rappelling off a 22-story building with plans of arriving in Dallas on Monday.
Here’s what he told Jay Greenberg about his Winter Meetings plans:
“We have a good team,” he said. “It’s hard to make it better, but we’ll do everything we can within reason to try to make it better. I don’t know if we will or not. Trying to concentrate on our pitching. I was on the phone all weekend, like I am all the time — made some offers, received some ideas but nothing getting any traction.”
It sounds like Cashman feels like Hector Noesi is something of a safety net in a rotation that figures to include CC Sabathia, Ivan Nova, Phil Hughes, A.J. Burnett and Freddy Garcia at this moment. Will the Yankees find a way to improve upon that? It depends on the other teams’ asking prices coming down, as Cashman has mentioned several times.
Cashman keeping cool with Winter Meetings ahead
Yankees GM Brian Cashman played it close to the vest this morning with a group of reporters in Stamford, Conn., and who could blame him? Cashman was on top of the 22-story Landmark Building, preparing to rappel down the side of it for the second straight year.
Cashman pulled it off without a hitch, but it doesn’t sound much like he has high hopes for swinging anything during the Winter Meetings in Dallas.
“Right now, if you’re asking me do I expect to do something in the next week, no,” Cashman said. “But I’ve had enough conversations where I could wind up doing something today. A lot of work has been done. A lot of conversations have been had. If somebody bends or adjusts, then I’m ready to make a recommendation for us to make a move.”
He added:
“Unless I change my position, which I don’t plan on doing, or unless they change their position, which could happen, then we might be in a better position to have something come into the target zone and we’ll take a shot at it.”
Here’s video of Cashman descending the building, in which he says in response to a question about Albert Pujols, “No big guys for us. We’ve got a lot of big guys already.”
Cashman: Noesi will be the next Nova
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman has been talking up Hector Noesi on a pretty consistent basis this winter, and on Tuesday told the New York Daily News’ John Harper that he is expecting big things from the right-hander, who will turn 25 in January. He’s also counting on another good year from Ivan Nova.
“Nova arrived sooner than expected,” Cashman told the Daily News. “When you’ve got the tools, that can happen. He knows now that he can dissect a major league lineup and go deep into games. He’s a legitimate weapon every five days.
“And Noesi is the next Nova. He’s throwing the (heck) out of the ball in the Dominican Winter League right now, hitting 98 on the gun with his fastball, and commanding his stuff. He’ll be ready to step in next season if we need him.”
Noesi was 2-2 with a 4.47 ERA (56.1 IP, 28 ER) in 30 appearances (two starts) over four stints with the Yankees this year. It’s worth noting that Noesi isn’t untouchable by any means; he could also be valued as a chip to help the Yankees go acquire another piece, especially with Cashman believing there are other big-league ready pieces in the Minors right now.
Bryan Hoch
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