Yankees Brian Cashman will craft his final legacy today

Dreams do Come True; It can Happen to You

The Yankees 27th WS banner makes the A-Rod decision difficult to evaluate. They won a World Series, but the team is still paying for it. Alex will get 21 million not to play this year; when GM’s worry about the back-end of a contract for aging players, this is what they mean.

But there’s no disputing Cash was dead on with Robbie.

And he was dead on last year when he traded current big league stars for future ones. To understand just how much he relished being in that position, let’s take the word of the one who knows Brian Cashman best: Brian Cashman. Here he was talking to New York Magazine back in 2004:

"“To be the guy who everyone else is calling, trying to trade for your one star, and having a choice of prospects to put a new team together . . . ,” Cashman says, stretching his hands out toward the Yankee Stadium infield, as if trying to hug a dream. “Yeah, I’d like to try that."

When that day finally arrived one year ago, it was a day he long looked forward to. It allowed him to start part one of his final chapter as Yankees GM, The Tear Down.

Today, twelve months later, he will start writing part two, Rebuilding a Champion. It’s the culmination of a dream long sought. Cashman stares now at not just crafting his destiny, but that of the Yankees for years to come.

That does not mean it will be easy. Cash has several difficult, in some cases unknowable, questions. And he has to answer all of them correctly.