Cashman “might want to leave” Yankees

So says Bill Madden of the Daily News — via NoMaas. Now the title does say Cash “might” want to leave after his contract is up following the 2011 campaign and Madden never quotes anyone directly about him wanting out — clearly it’s just speculation — but I don’t know if I buy it.

Madman:

"If you listen to some of [the] things Cashman has said over the years and look at the pattern with which he has chosen to operate in the last few years…a picture emerges of a GM who clearly wishes he was running a small-market team like his pal Billy Beane in Oakland. Indeed, you get the feeling that Cashman is tired of being labeled a “checkbook GM,” while viewing that $200 million Yankee payroll as an albatross rather than a built-in insurance policy for making the postseason every year. A tip-off of this was Cashman’s off-the-cuff remark to the Yankee beat writers at the winter meetings last December, “I haven’t had a problem knocking on Hal’s door and asking for more money. I have a problem sometimes of Hal saying yes. I know my title is general manager, but I consider myself the director of spending for the New York Yankees.”"

I see what he’s saying here, but why would you leave a job as cushy as general manager of the New York Yankees — with about a $2 million/year salary and damn-near unlimited funds — for a small-market team? This seems like a negotiating ploy similar to when there were rumors of Girardi wanting to leave to manage another team following the 2010 season. If Cashman does leave, which of course is possible, I think it will be because of the Steinbrenners undermining his authority and not because he wants to carve out a niche of his own as a small-market GM.

"Cashman longs to build a team in his own image – a team fashioned around a homegrown nucleus like that of 1996-2001, one of his predecessors and mentor, Gene Michael; a team especially anchored by homegrown starting pitching."

Well then why would he leave the Yankees? They have some great young pitching coming up with the Killer Bs in addition to two stud catchers. The Yanks’ farm system is stocked right now thanks to Cashman. When he got complete control of the team in 2005 they stopped making jackass trades of young prospects for again veterans. If Cashman really wants to be known as a GM who develops talent he’d stick it out and wait for this crop of prospects to blossom.

I have to believe that this story is just filler during a long and dull off season. I’m going to chalk it up as a writer needing a story and making assumptions. I’ll believe that Cashman will leave the Yankees for a small-market team when I see it.