Despite not being on top in the American League East and in the middle of a playoff race, the New York Yankees are still planning on extending general manager Brian Cashman at the end of the 2014 season, according to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports.
Cashman has made great impressions on the front office with his production of in-season pickups like pitcher Brandon McCarthy and infielders Chase Headley and Martin Prado. With that said, Heyman notes that the team is not putting Cashman to blame for the lack of performance from veteran outfielder Carlos Beltran and catcher Brian McCann.
The seventeen-year general manager does not seem to be too concerned about his current contract state.
“We’ve never done a deal until it’s close to being up. There’s nothing more to say,” Cashman said by phone last week (and presumably would say the same now). “All our focus is to try to win as many games as is necessary to qualify for the postseason. As Hal said, that’s his focus. And that’s our focus.”
At this moment, the Yankees are just four games out of the second spot in the American League Wild Card race. The whole season, injuries have plagued the starting rotation, as Hiroki Kuroda has been the only healthy starter the whole season, with Michael Pineda being on the disabled list most of the season (now back on team), Ivan Nova and C.C. Sabathia out for the season with elbow and knee injuries and Masahiro Tanaka, their big signing of the offseason from Japan, partially tore his UCL in July and has been rehabbing since.
New York has had to rely on guys like veteran pitcher Chris Capuano and rookie pitcher Shane Greene. At the end of all of this, the Yankees are still in playoff contention and could definitely still succeed with Cashman’s leadership.