Yankees: Cashman And Girardi Are Making All The Right Moves

The Yankees take the field tomorrow afternoon under sunny skies, temperatures in the low seventies, and a 24-year old who came out of nowhere on the mound making his major league debut. Rejoice, this is just the beginning.

The Yankees bring that less than impressive 3-4 record to Yankee Stadium tomorrow afternoon to face the Tampa Bay Rays in the middle of a three-game set before the Cardinals come in for a big weekend series at the Stadium.

Make no mistake about it. The Yankees are an organization that is bring constructed for the future. But the construction is based on the short term and not some five-year rebuilding plan. And in some respects, the organization is taking strides that demonstrate that the future, in some case, will be now.

Jordan Montgomery has not had one pitching hiccup since he arrived in Spring Training a full two months ago. He’s finished out no-hitters, he’s made two impressive starts, and he continued the process when he combined with Chad Green in completely shutting down a Detroit Tiger’s minor league last week.

“We don’t stick up banners for being a wild-card team,” (Brian Cashman)

He’s proven to the Yankees, and especially Joe Girardi, that he is ready for prime time and he will be rewarded for everything he’s done since signing a contract out of the South Carolina with a start tomorrow afternoon, bumping Luis Severino back at least a day or two, and maybe forever.

The Yankees Plan: Force Me To Promote You

The were some misgivings and a dose of disappointment on the part of fans; myself included when the Yankees decided to not to go all in with a team of Baby Bombers now, instead of later.

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But what the promotion of Mongomery proves, if nothing else, is that the organization will promote when a player demonstrates to them that he is ready to accept the load that comes with the job.

Not every 23 or 25-year can take on that onus of being a New York Yankee, but when they get one like Mongomery, they are more than willing to pull the trigger.

They prove it once again this spring when they dove in the high water with Aaron Judge, making him sweat out the entire preseason with Aaron Hicks looking over his shoulder. But in the end, they awarded the job to Judge and he has responded with two home runs in seven games and a .855 OPS. And he’s only going to get better.

And you can bet the farm that the organization is keeping a close eye on pitchers like Justus Sheffield and Chance Adams to gauge when they will be ready to join the big club. And while they will not hold them back, the onus is on them to force the team to make a move, as in the case of Montogomery.

A Six-Man Rotation Is In The Wind

If it plays out that way and suddenly the Yankees have six pitchers who are all qualified to be in the rotation, you almost have a perfect storm developing then because it means that the team can move to a six-man rotation.

Courtesy of the YES Network, Girardi talks about CC Sabathia

A six-man rotation means that Masahiro Tanaka can move back to what he has always been most comfortable with stemming from his years in Japan with five days rest. A CC Sabathia gets an extra day to rest his weary and aging body with an extra day too.

And the change would also mean that Michael Pineda and Luis Severino pitch less, not more. It’s win-win and Brian Cashman is on it! In a brilliant piece written by Tyler Kepner and published in today’s New York Times, Cashman points out that:

"“We don’t stick up banners for being a wild-card team,” Cashman said as he sat on the bench in the Yankees’ dugout late in spring training. “We never stuck up banners for American League champions. I’m not saying you’re not proud to get into the postseason, whether it’s a wild card or division champion, but the ultimate thing is, you want to be remembered. And to be remembered is to win championships.”"

Now, that might sound a bit arrogant and maybe it is, but Cashman has his eyes on the prize and he wants it sooner rather than later, just as we all do.

Who’s Next, Step Right Up

But along the way, he’s going to continue to make sound baseball decisions that are carefully thought out, while hoping that they coincide with the timeline his boss, Hal Steinbrenner, has in answering to the stockholders and other major partners as to when the Yankees will raise that 28th Championship Flag at Yankee Stadium.

Gleyber Torres and the rest of them will come when Brian Cashman and Joe Girardi deem them ready to come. End of story. And I don’t know about you, but I’ll go with their track record before I place a fictitious bet that Michael Pineda will win two of his next three decisions.

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Any takers? Meanwhile, though, all eyes will be on the Jordan Montgomery, all six feet six inches of him, tomorrow when he takes to the mound under glorious skies and perfect baseball weather to face the Rays in making his major league debut wearing the Pinstripes.

And the best news is that we’ll be saying this again and again about the next Yankee who proves himself ready to make the leap.