Yankees: Brian Cashman’s candor with media should provide hope for blockbuster trade

Brian Cashman’s bluntness could suggest the Yankees are going to pull off a big trade.

New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman is fed up. If you watched or listened to his session with the media on Friday, you could really tell he’s just ready to capture another World Series and get this whole thing over with.

His candor, in particular, turned a lot of heads. And that began right when the 2020 season ended. But if Friday proved anything, it’s that Cashman is ready to go for the jugular and will be doing his best not to let outside or intangible factors affect the Yankees in 2021.

He called out DJ LeMahieu. He called out Gary Sanchez. He still isn’t committing to Gleyber Torres as the starting shortstop beyond 2021. He revealed the Yankees and Aaron Judge still haven’t discussed a contract extension. He mentioned Luis Severino will be used “as the Yankees see fit.” He blasted the Houston Astros and talked at length about Masahiro Tanaka’s negotiations.

He’s not playing games. So, whether before Opening Day or before the Aug. 1 non-waiver deadline, based on Cashman’s demeanor, fans can be hopeful a blockbuster trade will be on the way to further cement the Yankees’ status as World Series contenders.

Cashman’s talked a great deal (for a while now) about getting screwed out of a championship because of the Astros’ cheating scandal in addition to the unlucky nature of players suffering injuries at the worst times for the better part of four years. Don’t you think he’s tired of answering questions about whether [insert season] was a failure? You’d sure be. Just think about how badly you were losing your mind when the Yankees were taking too long for your liking to make a trade or a signing. Multiply that by 1,000.

Additionally, Cashman’s been a bit ruthless this offseason … more so than we’ve seen in a while. He traded Adam Ottavino to the Red Sox. He’s openly held players accountable. He let a seven-year veteran in Tanaka leave in free agency and made it clear he’d rather gamble with guys like Corey Kluber and Jameson Taillon. There’s a chance he doesn’t bring back Brett Gardner.

He’s emotionally detached, ready to capture No. 28 by whatever means necessary. That’s why we wouldn’t rule out another cutthroat trade to further bolster the rotation, which still needs the most attention.

The longest-tenured general manager in the game has been here too many times before. He must feel like he’s living on loop. Time to break the wheel. We’ve seen some momentous changes over the last few years with the decisions escalating each and every offseason.

Now, he might be ready to push all of his chips into the middle of the table.

Yankees: Brian Cashman takes aim at Gary Sanchez for benching comments

It doesn't take a genius to understand why the New York Yankees benched Gary Sanchez last year, as Brian Cashman reiterated.