Can you remember back in 2014 when MLB played an early season double-header in Sydney on the famous SCG cricket ground? Well at that time I just started work for on online auction house where we served as a platform sourcing things for people to sell then pushing it to our customer base, at that time we got the stuff that had been used in that game, including the dirt, meaning you could buy at Auction on Grays.com the dirt used in the diamond (on the base paths I assume) of a real live MLB game, so someones backyard most likely currently has its lawn in Sydney growing in the dirt used in an MLB game, not sure why but thought you might like that Joe
You know what else is such a White Sox thing to do? Have their GM on multiple occasions mention one of the things he likes about Luisangel Acuña, who he recently acquired from the Mets, is that he's a switch-hitter when, *checks notes*...he's not.
Since no one has commented on the Pirates' signings (that I saw), I will note that picking up O'Hearn and Ozuna (O'Zuna?) reminds me strongly of when the Guardians signed Michael Bourn (30) and Nick Swisher (32) in 2013. It was three years of regret before they bit the bullet and dumped the contracts.
OTOH, as soon as they did they went to the World Series.
Spot on about Bourn & Swisher. Bourn was billed as a leadoff hitter with great defense... Huh? Bourn had never been a leadoff hitter. And Swisher, had like Angel Martinez splits as a "Switch Hitter". (duh!).
I "don't love" the Yankees just running it back after last year, but it's not wholly unreasonable to think they might be even better than last year. Consider:
* Wells, Rice, Dominguez and Volpe are all still well below 30 and could reasonably be expected to improve this year. Wells had a .245 BABiP in 2025, which is likely to come back up. Volpe was hurt, and if he's healthy, should improve. Dominguez is very young, still just 23, so he's a good bet for improvement.
* Bellinger is still just 30, and has some security now. Call it a wash?
* Grisham is likely to regress, but perhaps not too much.
* Goldschmidt is mostly toast, IMO, but if you limit him to mostly hitting against lefties maybe he doesn't hurt you too much.
* Full seasons of Jazz and Stanton (for whom a full season is like 115 games) should help.
* Judge *should* be ready to regress, but he hasn't shown any signs of it so far. He hit .370 in SeptOber and .500 in the playoffs, so he doesn't seem to be slowing down.
* McMahon is...well...good with the glove. Maybe getting permanently out of Coors will help him? Ick.
Yes, it's wishful thinking, but then what is February for if not that??
Brilliant reader Jeff’s “Mendoza line” as a reason he loves baseball? Yeah, maybe but the Mendoza line of.16-0 this year is a reason that I loved IU football. Go Hoosiers.
Somebody, not saying who, but SOMEBODY could do a good piece on great players, after years in the wilderness, returning to their original team to end their careers: Pujols, Griffey, Ichiro, Reggie, Rose, McCovey, maybe Verlander if this is the end. Add those players who returned to their original city but with a different team, including the great HR triumvirate of Ruth, Mays, Aaron.
When I heard JV had re-signed with the Tigers (my Cubs fan boss told me as I came out of a meeting, and I thought he was messing with me), I was WAY more excited than I would have expected. This signing is exactly what Joe talks about: it may not be the best signing, but it is absolutely fun for the fans!
My daughter texted me this morning and told me our Yankees have 24 players back of the 26 that were on the roster in the Toronto series...which they LOST while displaying the monumental holes in their lineup. I haven't been able to verify this, but if it's true I cannot possible fathom the message it sends.
For the life of me I cannot understand how Brian Cashman still has a job.
Reading these remarks I hear Bart Simpsons laugh. Loudly.
Cashman’s WS ‘wins’. And most WS appearances. Came w a team built / assembled by prior FO & regime. Only one you could say remotely has his fingers is 09. And really, that’s Georgie’ last checkbook team.
Cashman was assistant GM during the regime that you mentioned. He was part of that regime. When he became assistant GM, it was the year the Yankees had their last losing season, which at the time, was their 4th consecutive. They have had none since. He was farm director two year before that, so anyone participating in those teams that was drafted before 1992 when he became the assistant GM, he was involved in their development.
Last year was actually his 28th season as GM. Over that time, the Yankees have the best record in baseball, 102 games ahead of the 2nd place Dodgers. They have won 94.7 games per 162. In a competitive division, they have won more division titles than the other 4 teams combined.
They have appeared in 200 post season games over his tenure (41 more than the Dodgers) and have a .565 post season winning percentage.
If a Yankee fan wants a new GM, they should be careful what they wish for.
I see the your arguments, but there are some questions and clarifications. The World Series championships on Cashman's resumes were won with the rosters built by Gene Michael. Without Jeter, Mariano, Bernie, Pettitte, Jorge et al, do the Yankees win those 4? Do they win any of them?
This is 2026. At what point do the World Series titles from the 1990's age out of his resume? [Bill Belichick went to ten Super Bowls THIS CENTURY, did that help him keep his job?]
When you're in the Top 5 in payroll every single year, you should be expected to win every year.
When 14 teams make the playoffs every year in a league with 30 teams, making the playoffs is no big achievement.
When you go into the playoffs against the Blue Jays and your 7-8-9 hitters have three of the 4 lowest batting averages in the league, you have a problem. When you go into the next season with virtually the same roster, is there any reason to believe your results are going to be any different?
They're the Yankees. Success is measured in World Series titles. Since the Yankees' last World Series championship, here are the teams who have won a title: Giants (3), Dodgers (3), Red Sox (2), Astros (2), Nationals, Rangers, Royals, Cardinals and Braves. Yankees 2010-2025 (0).
If your GM's success is measured by "making money hand over first" you need a new owner. [Remember Donald Sterling's run with the NBA's LA Clippers? He made money hand over fist for years and years. Did that mean Elgin Baylor was a great GM?]
It's not my job to find a GM that can win the World Series... that's Hal Steinbrenner's job. But if you want a name, I'd start with Kim Ng. There are eleven different GMs who have won the World Series since Cashman's last, and most of them had a lot less money to spend than Cashman. Hal should try to find one.
If your goal is to make money, win the division, and be better than the crosstown Mets, then I guess Cashman is your man. If your goal is to win a championship, I (along with most Yankees fans I know) think it's time for a new mindset.
"When you're in the Top 5 in payroll every single year, you should be expected to win every year." Explain to me how 5 teams win the World Series every year.
Lou, at no point did I say the top five teams should win the World Series every year, did I? Common sense would tell most people that would be impossible so I'm not sure why you resorted to a senseless impossibility to support your insult.
What most people in here understood was that I was referring to your comment mentioning they've had zero losing seasons. Having a winning season shouldn't be deemed a major accomplishment when you are among the top 5 in payroll year-in-and-year out. Thus my statement that "when you're in the Top 5 in payroll every single year, you should be expected to win every year."
Sure that streak is a cute little fact that Cashman loves to rest his laurels on, and as a Yankees fan it's nice to not have to ever suffer through a losing season, but sometimes you have to risk a losing season here and there if a rebuild is necessary to win the World Series.
Would I take an occasional losing season if it meant winning 4 World Series in 15 years like the hated Red Sox? I think I'd would prefer that to never having a losing season but never winning a World Series.
That's an accurate summary of achievements, but not a full appraisal. 5 AL pennants and 3 WS Titles came in the first 6 years with a team that was built before he arrived that he maintained by getting a few top dollar free agents. How he's done after the young players got older and the key veterans needed replacing is harder to praise. 2004-2025 featured 2 pennants and 1 WS title. True that every season ended with a winning record and only missed the playoffs 5 times, but what is the bar for the GM that had the highest payroll many years running? I compare the Yankees' success to that of other large market teams.
Sometimes you just need a different voice in the room. This is also known as diversity of thought. If you have the same leadership for too long and they continue to hire the same type of people, you end up getting the same results. For successful business, you occasionally need someone to suggest zagging instead of always zigging.
BR Kerry's mention of scoring a game at Wrigley with his son reminds me of my experience at Wrigley.
'Bout 20 years ago, my wife and I were in Chicago so she could attend a work-related conference. I planned ahead and bought online a ticket to a Cubs-Cardinals game for one of the afternoons. What I could find at an acceptable price was way up high, way down the right field line. I had a great view of the RF. Home plate? Not so much. It was a cold, rainy early June day, so naturally Dusty Baker sent Carlos Zambrano back out to go over 100 pitches with a 12-4 lead in the 8th...
Got to my seat a couple of batters in. All around me were families, a couple of which included kids learning to score. Since I also keep a scorebook, the guy behind me (also with his kids) kept tapping me on the shoulder and asking me questions about things like the pitch counts, and how the pitchers were doing against leadoff hitters each inning.
A couple of innings in, four college students came up and filled in the four empty seats in front of me. They were from St. Louis, decided to come up and bought tickets online the night before. The ringleader refused all attempts to get him to say how much they had paid for them. They got a bit of a (good-natured, since the Cubs were winning handily...) razzing from the Cubs fans around, and took it well.
All in all, one of the most fun times I've ever had at a ballgame. Wrigley is not the fanciest, most luxurious park, but the fans make the experience.
I've sat in the area of Wrigley that you are referencing (my boss used to have season tickets in that area). The regulars are a blast and the non-regulars are usually pretty inebriated. It is a lot of fun. Best time I had there is when the Royals were playing there in 2015 and the stadium turned into Kaufmann Stadium East for a day (lots of KC people live in Chicago, apparently)
Orioles are in need of an intense, positive locker room presence and I think they got that with Alonso - a big lead-by-example guy that plays through injuries and plans to be in the lineup every single day. The Holliday news is a bummer, and boy, we would've loved another starter, but I think the O's could really make a big splash (see what I did there, O's fans?) and comeback this season.
The Tigers look like they stole the offseason - right @ the end! Lions and Tigers and Detroit.... OH MY!
Can you remember back in 2014 when MLB played an early season double-header in Sydney on the famous SCG cricket ground? Well at that time I just started work for on online auction house where we served as a platform sourcing things for people to sell then pushing it to our customer base, at that time we got the stuff that had been used in that game, including the dirt, meaning you could buy at Auction on Grays.com the dirt used in the diamond (on the base paths I assume) of a real live MLB game, so someones backyard most likely currently has its lawn in Sydney growing in the dirt used in an MLB game, not sure why but thought you might like that Joe
You know what else is such a White Sox thing to do? Have their GM on multiple occasions mention one of the things he likes about Luisangel Acuña, who he recently acquired from the Mets, is that he's a switch-hitter when, *checks notes*...he's not.
Maybe he's happy that he's bilingual? Otherwise, I got nothing.
Who was the last baseball superstar as anonymous as Kyle Tucker?
Shawn Greene
I was at the game mentioned by BR Kevin above. Great fun!
Is Brilliant Reader Kerry the same Kerry who, while also wearing a Cubs shirt, struck out 20 Astros when he was just 20 years old?
Since no one has commented on the Pirates' signings (that I saw), I will note that picking up O'Hearn and Ozuna (O'Zuna?) reminds me strongly of when the Guardians signed Michael Bourn (30) and Nick Swisher (32) in 2013. It was three years of regret before they bit the bullet and dumped the contracts.
OTOH, as soon as they did they went to the World Series.
Spot on about Bourn & Swisher. Bourn was billed as a leadoff hitter with great defense... Huh? Bourn had never been a leadoff hitter. And Swisher, had like Angel Martinez splits as a "Switch Hitter". (duh!).
I "don't love" the Yankees just running it back after last year, but it's not wholly unreasonable to think they might be even better than last year. Consider:
* Wells, Rice, Dominguez and Volpe are all still well below 30 and could reasonably be expected to improve this year. Wells had a .245 BABiP in 2025, which is likely to come back up. Volpe was hurt, and if he's healthy, should improve. Dominguez is very young, still just 23, so he's a good bet for improvement.
* Bellinger is still just 30, and has some security now. Call it a wash?
* Grisham is likely to regress, but perhaps not too much.
* Goldschmidt is mostly toast, IMO, but if you limit him to mostly hitting against lefties maybe he doesn't hurt you too much.
* Full seasons of Jazz and Stanton (for whom a full season is like 115 games) should help.
* Judge *should* be ready to regress, but he hasn't shown any signs of it so far. He hit .370 in SeptOber and .500 in the playoffs, so he doesn't seem to be slowing down.
* McMahon is...well...good with the glove. Maybe getting permanently out of Coors will help him? Ick.
Yes, it's wishful thinking, but then what is February for if not that??
I don't love Joe pointing out negatives of the Yankees before the season starts. I am not a Yankee fan, and it is like a reverse jinx or something.
Brilliant reader Jeff’s “Mendoza line” as a reason he loves baseball? Yeah, maybe but the Mendoza line of.16-0 this year is a reason that I loved IU football. Go Hoosiers.
Best Pantoliano lines are in ‘Risky Business’.
(yes he was also in another show, but this is a family friendly site).
Somebody, not saying who, but SOMEBODY could do a good piece on great players, after years in the wilderness, returning to their original team to end their careers: Pujols, Griffey, Ichiro, Reggie, Rose, McCovey, maybe Verlander if this is the end. Add those players who returned to their original city but with a different team, including the great HR triumvirate of Ruth, Mays, Aaron.
When I heard JV had re-signed with the Tigers (my Cubs fan boss told me as I came out of a meeting, and I thought he was messing with me), I was WAY more excited than I would have expected. This signing is exactly what Joe talks about: it may not be the best signing, but it is absolutely fun for the fans!
My daughter texted me this morning and told me our Yankees have 24 players back of the 26 that were on the roster in the Toronto series...which they LOST while displaying the monumental holes in their lineup. I haven't been able to verify this, but if it's true I cannot possible fathom the message it sends.
For the life of me I cannot understand how Brian Cashman still has a job.
Can somebody please explain?
I'll give it a shot.
Cashman has been GM of the Yankees since 1998. That's 27 seasons. His resume:
4 WS Titles
3 WS Losses (also known as AL pennants)
15 AL East titles
22 of 27 years made playoffs
0 losing seasons
The Yankees make money hand over fist. I can't recall reading anything disparaging about his personality or behavior. He's a mortal lock HOFer.
Please suggest the name of the person to replace him and detail his/her resume and qualifications as to why they'd do a better job.
Reading these remarks I hear Bart Simpsons laugh. Loudly.
Cashman’s WS ‘wins’. And most WS appearances. Came w a team built / assembled by prior FO & regime. Only one you could say remotely has his fingers is 09. And really, that’s Georgie’ last checkbook team.
Cashman was assistant GM during the regime that you mentioned. He was part of that regime. When he became assistant GM, it was the year the Yankees had their last losing season, which at the time, was their 4th consecutive. They have had none since. He was farm director two year before that, so anyone participating in those teams that was drafted before 1992 when he became the assistant GM, he was involved in their development.
Last year was actually his 28th season as GM. Over that time, the Yankees have the best record in baseball, 102 games ahead of the 2nd place Dodgers. They have won 94.7 games per 162. In a competitive division, they have won more division titles than the other 4 teams combined.
They have appeared in 200 post season games over his tenure (41 more than the Dodgers) and have a .565 post season winning percentage.
If a Yankee fan wants a new GM, they should be careful what they wish for.
I'll wish for them. Yes, get a new GM. Teams that fire long time successful coaches/GMS NEVER regret it. :)
I see the your arguments, but there are some questions and clarifications. The World Series championships on Cashman's resumes were won with the rosters built by Gene Michael. Without Jeter, Mariano, Bernie, Pettitte, Jorge et al, do the Yankees win those 4? Do they win any of them?
This is 2026. At what point do the World Series titles from the 1990's age out of his resume? [Bill Belichick went to ten Super Bowls THIS CENTURY, did that help him keep his job?]
When you're in the Top 5 in payroll every single year, you should be expected to win every year.
When 14 teams make the playoffs every year in a league with 30 teams, making the playoffs is no big achievement.
When you go into the playoffs against the Blue Jays and your 7-8-9 hitters have three of the 4 lowest batting averages in the league, you have a problem. When you go into the next season with virtually the same roster, is there any reason to believe your results are going to be any different?
They're the Yankees. Success is measured in World Series titles. Since the Yankees' last World Series championship, here are the teams who have won a title: Giants (3), Dodgers (3), Red Sox (2), Astros (2), Nationals, Rangers, Royals, Cardinals and Braves. Yankees 2010-2025 (0).
If your GM's success is measured by "making money hand over first" you need a new owner. [Remember Donald Sterling's run with the NBA's LA Clippers? He made money hand over fist for years and years. Did that mean Elgin Baylor was a great GM?]
It's not my job to find a GM that can win the World Series... that's Hal Steinbrenner's job. But if you want a name, I'd start with Kim Ng. There are eleven different GMs who have won the World Series since Cashman's last, and most of them had a lot less money to spend than Cashman. Hal should try to find one.
If your goal is to make money, win the division, and be better than the crosstown Mets, then I guess Cashman is your man. If your goal is to win a championship, I (along with most Yankees fans I know) think it's time for a new mindset.
Brian Cashman can build a winner.
Brian Cashman cannot build a champion.
"When you're in the Top 5 in payroll every single year, you should be expected to win every year." Explain to me how 5 teams win the World Series every year.
Lou, at no point did I say the top five teams should win the World Series every year, did I? Common sense would tell most people that would be impossible so I'm not sure why you resorted to a senseless impossibility to support your insult.
What most people in here understood was that I was referring to your comment mentioning they've had zero losing seasons. Having a winning season shouldn't be deemed a major accomplishment when you are among the top 5 in payroll year-in-and-year out. Thus my statement that "when you're in the Top 5 in payroll every single year, you should be expected to win every year."
Sure that streak is a cute little fact that Cashman loves to rest his laurels on, and as a Yankees fan it's nice to not have to ever suffer through a losing season, but sometimes you have to risk a losing season here and there if a rebuild is necessary to win the World Series.
Would I take an occasional losing season if it meant winning 4 World Series in 15 years like the hated Red Sox? I think I'd would prefer that to never having a losing season but never winning a World Series.
Sarcasm is very important to you, isn’t it?
Tiresome to read, though.
That's an accurate summary of achievements, but not a full appraisal. 5 AL pennants and 3 WS Titles came in the first 6 years with a team that was built before he arrived that he maintained by getting a few top dollar free agents. How he's done after the young players got older and the key veterans needed replacing is harder to praise. 2004-2025 featured 2 pennants and 1 WS title. True that every season ended with a winning record and only missed the playoffs 5 times, but what is the bar for the GM that had the highest payroll many years running? I compare the Yankees' success to that of other large market teams.
Sometimes you just need a different voice in the room. This is also known as diversity of thought. If you have the same leadership for too long and they continue to hire the same type of people, you end up getting the same results. For successful business, you occasionally need someone to suggest zagging instead of always zigging.
The Yankees are *not* a successful business? Enlighten us with your business ownership and acumen. You must own Exxon or Apple, I guess.
As a Phillies fan, I appreciate that Joe's example of a generic second baseman of yesterday is basically Larry Bowa
Wasn't he their shortstop?
Crap, you're right. I was so amused at how accurately he described Larry Bowa's career that I pictured him at the wrong position.
Joe of course was referring to Duane Kuiper, who hit .283/0 in 1978. But lo and behold Larry Bowa turned the exact same trick in 1981.
BR Kerry's mention of scoring a game at Wrigley with his son reminds me of my experience at Wrigley.
'Bout 20 years ago, my wife and I were in Chicago so she could attend a work-related conference. I planned ahead and bought online a ticket to a Cubs-Cardinals game for one of the afternoons. What I could find at an acceptable price was way up high, way down the right field line. I had a great view of the RF. Home plate? Not so much. It was a cold, rainy early June day, so naturally Dusty Baker sent Carlos Zambrano back out to go over 100 pitches with a 12-4 lead in the 8th...
Got to my seat a couple of batters in. All around me were families, a couple of which included kids learning to score. Since I also keep a scorebook, the guy behind me (also with his kids) kept tapping me on the shoulder and asking me questions about things like the pitch counts, and how the pitchers were doing against leadoff hitters each inning.
A couple of innings in, four college students came up and filled in the four empty seats in front of me. They were from St. Louis, decided to come up and bought tickets online the night before. The ringleader refused all attempts to get him to say how much they had paid for them. They got a bit of a (good-natured, since the Cubs were winning handily...) razzing from the Cubs fans around, and took it well.
All in all, one of the most fun times I've ever had at a ballgame. Wrigley is not the fanciest, most luxurious park, but the fans make the experience.
I've sat in the area of Wrigley that you are referencing (my boss used to have season tickets in that area). The regulars are a blast and the non-regulars are usually pretty inebriated. It is a lot of fun. Best time I had there is when the Royals were playing there in 2015 and the stadium turned into Kaufmann Stadium East for a day (lots of KC people live in Chicago, apparently)
Orioles are in need of an intense, positive locker room presence and I think they got that with Alonso - a big lead-by-example guy that plays through injuries and plans to be in the lineup every single day. The Holliday news is a bummer, and boy, we would've loved another starter, but I think the O's could really make a big splash (see what I did there, O's fans?) and comeback this season.