A few hours ago, I asked you to chime in on what you thought was Brian Cashman’s best move as a GM. Now let’s move to the other side of the ledger and look at his worst mistakes. When I posed the question to my twitter followers, I received votes for the following errors:
1) The trade for Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte
2) Signing Carl Pavano
3) Signing Kei Igawa
4) The 2nd Vazquez trade
5) The handling of Joba Chamberlain
6) Offering Montero for 2 months of Cliff Lee
7) Trading Tyler Clippard
8) Bringing Clemens back
Chime in below with your own opinion as to Cashman’s worst move, and if you have not yet done so, scroll to the previous thread and comment on his best moves as well. In my opinion, the handling of Joba is the one real dark mark against the Cashman regime, and I would probably vote for that as the worst move.
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17 Responses to Open Thread | Discussion: Cashman’s Worst Moves
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Not trading Ramiro Mendoza for Jim Edmonds because Mendoza was ‘more valuable to the Yankees.’
I had a fit about this one at the time, and had several heated discussions with other Yankee fans about it.
Mike Lowell?
I don’t care how it worked out.
I will forever defend the Mike Lowell trade.
Ed Yarnall was the best pitcher I have ever seen in the Eastern League.
KEVIN BROWN
SHEFFIELD INSTEAD OF VLAD G.
Remember though Cashman wanted Vlad and had parameters for a deal with him worked out. The Boss wanted Sheff and vetoed.
Also, the Yanks dealt Jeff Weaver for Brown – not a huge loss. The mistake was trading for Weaver in the first place, though it’s hard to bash that one too much considering how good Weaver was with the Tigers.
Sheffield was great as a Yankee, until he got hurt and started mouthing off about the contract. But the first two years he was terrific.
Or am I misremembering?
Joba handling and the Lee trade are tied for me.
The Joba situation has set the team back more than these other moves. Most of the moves on the list were gambles that the Yankees could afford because of their massive payroll.
I voted for Igawa as the worst, b/c it was a knee-jerk reaction to Dice-K, which is always a bad sign and he bypassed Ted Lily for the same money a double whammy. At least Pavano if healthy would’ve contributed, Igawa was simply not a major league pitcher.
…The ARod contract (despite being a huge ARod guy) was another awful move b/c Yankees overpaid by at least $100M over market value, but I’ll give Cashman a pass since that was mostly if not all Hank.
…FYI: Voted waiting for CC the best move. It was ballsy and he ended up holding onto Hughes in that exchange.
The Joba handling shouldn’t be on this list. That situation is in Girardi’s realm. Sure, he runs it by the front office but it’s the manager’s say; the manager is the field manager after all. Many of the other moves had overriding input from Herr Steingrabber. However, the second Javy trade was a bad one in hindsight. But at the time with Javy coming off a Cy caliber year it looked good. As did the Ted Lilly for Jeff Weaver trade. I doubt the Igawa signing was Cashman’s…just not his style. I agree it appeared to be a knee-jerk reaction; knee-jerk reactions are the mark of the Steingrabber family and not Cash. Nady/Marte trade still isn’t a bad trade. They got a good year out of Nady and some decent moments from Marte and still might get some more out of Marte. The Pirates have had some good moments out of Ohlendorf and Tabata, a fair moments out of Karstens. I would say if Ohlendorf and Tabata continue to develop this one could turn into a huge mistake. I would add the Melancon for Fat Elvis trade. This one could turn out to be a huge mistake too. Also, I would like to know who added the Granderson trade to the best moments list?? I would say as of this moment it should be in the worst moments list. If Grandy performs for the whole year as he did last fall than it could change. But with Austin Jackson having a rookie of the year caliber year and Ian Kennedy becoming the ace of the Diamondback rotation, how the hell can you call it a good trade; at this point!!
Really, though, it’s hard to pinpoint blame for any roster moves on one person. If you give Cashman responsibility for everything, it probably includes Joba. Cashman at the least went along with it.
I do see your point, but let’s throw Chamberlain in for the sake of argument: which move hurt the most.
On Kennedy and Jackson,l there are mitigating circumstance. Kennedy is pitching in a division made for pitchers. It’s been argued that he couldn’t do it in the AL east. If that’s true, how good he is elsewhere doesn’t change that.
And Jackson had an unbelievable BABIP last season. It’s likely he was very lucky and won’t repeat that performance.
I have to agree with Duke. Chamberlain shouldn’t be on the list. I’ve read people who go on at length about how he got hosed.
Hasn’t anyone here had a situation in their job where the people you worked for didn’t do the right thing? I know I have. Most people I know and myself dealt with the adversity. Yeah he got shafted; first by the team, then by himself.
I gotta ask since when did this guy turn into a piece of porcelain? Get over it if he had the stuff in the first place he’d had overcome.
It’s hard to get into anyone’s head, Chamberlain, Cashman, or Girardi. But even if it’s true that Chamberlain hurt himself by reacting poorly, if it is still true that different handling would have made him better, you have to consider that.
I think the way I’m going to say it from now on will be; can we please start holding Joba Chamberlain responsible for his own failings?
Personally I think the worst move didn’t make the list. Cashman should never have allowed Torre to throw A-Rod under the bus during the 2006 playoffs. Except for Jeter and Posada in Game 1, the entire team was inept at the plate. Detroit’s pitchers were able to stop the Yankee hitters.
Cashman should never have allowed Torre make A-Rod bat 8th.What was the plan? Have A-Rod bunt so the #9 guy could drive someone in? A-Rod became the whipping boy of Yankee fans and Torre was able to escape criticism since everyone was focused on A-Rod.
People say A-Rod became a changed man when he talked about using steroids. I disagree. He became a changed man when Girardi took over. Torre never liked A-Rod and blamed him for all the problems the Yankees had, including his own ineptness.
Cashmans bad moves get really covered up by the fact that hes got 200+ to work with. Any of these moves in another market and he wouldnt have lasted 3 years. What are his good moves? Sign CC? Really? He hasn’t developed pitching in all his time here which with their resources is almost sinful. I think having Mo covers up a lot of the pitchings flaws.