Yankees Brian Cashman will craft his final legacy today

The Yankees GM will make decisions today that will affect the organization for years to come, and form the final verdict on a long career. And that’s exactly how Brian Cashman wants it.

Yankees players aren’t the only ones with legacies. GM’s and owners have them, too. When you spend $100,000 to take the best player in the history of the sport away from your division rival, you leave a great legacy. Trade Jay Buhner for Ken Phelps and they write incredulous articles consigning you to ignominy; rightly so.

Cashman knows that. He understands legacy all too well and has bristled for some time that his was seemingly written long ago. His frustration almost caused him to leave the Yankees in 2005. But it was that same frustration that caused him to stay and led him to this moment in time.

Going for the Title

Not all titles, you see, are equal. Cash has been the Yankees General Manager since 1998, but that doesn’t mean he ran the whole organization. His power was restricted to exclude much of the evaluating, drafting, and trading of young Yankees talent. And he was often overruled on free agents by everyone from scouts to agents, as Sports Illustrated once pointed out:

"But by early 2005, Cashman was again getting overruled on free agents; everybody from the scouting director to agent Scott Boras to Steinbrenner’s pals seemed to have a hand on the 25-man roster."

Adding to the internal issues was that the team he took over was already built and highly successful. But that success had been as much a curse as a blessing, for it boxed Cashman in. With proven championship caliber players, the wise move was to continually restock the team with free agents.

Those were the real days of trying to win the World Series every year.

That made it seem to all the world as if Cash was only talented enough to buy the best players. It didn’t matter that he was not allowed to grow prospects and trade big stars. Or that Brian was spending like a rich man in plain sight, but acting more as a mendicant behind closed doors.

And what he was begging for was to create a younger team with greater payroll flexibility. No one knew that. So, the consensus was clear: Cashman had an easy job because anyone could be successful with Steinbrenners seemingly limitless checkbook.

He knew that, until he had complete organizational control, he could never craft his true narrative.