3 Brian Cashman replacements Yankees should target in offseason

If general manager Brian Cashman’s job isn’t hinging on a World Series berth, then New York Yankees fans will simply be at a loss when the 2022 season concludes. How much more can the man afford to fall short?

It’s not like this is the Premier League, where managers are sacked after two disappointing games. This is the world’s most renowned sports franchise mostly falling flat on their face since 2004. Yes, some fan bases hardly ever experience championships, so the Yankees’ lone 2009 triumph would mean a lot more to other unlucky folk, but the standard is different in New York.

Cashman’s had one of the game’s highest budgets and largest support systems to work with ever since taking over in 1998. The Yankees have captured four World Series over that span (and have been to five), but Cashman was only the true architect of one of them (2009).

Now, in a contract year, Cashman simply needs to be held accountable if the Yankees fall short yet again. Their below-.500 spurt from mid-June until now somehow feels like more of the norm than the team’s incredible start did.

But as the Yankees do under Cashman, they choked away a sizable lead in the AL over the Houston Astros for home field advantage and are now the talk of the league after a five-game skid in the wake of the GM’s trade deadline that was actually solid until he spoiled it at the very last moment.

If Hal Steinbrenner knows what’s best for this team, he’ll target one of these three executives in the offseason if the Yankees fail to make a World Series run in 2022.

Yankees should target these possible Brian Cashman replacements in offseason

3. Billy Beane

The Mets tried this past offseason! Why can’t the Yankees? Though it seems like Billy Beane is destined to rot in Oakland and die by utilizing Moneyball in baseball’s most disgraceful market … does that have to be the way his story ends?

Beane is 60 years old and has been essentially doing the same thing in Oakland since 1997. That’s 25 years! And still, nobody knows what his contract situation with the team is. Could he have been verbally handed a “job for life” until he wishes to leave? No idea! But that’s what makes this intriguing.

Can the Yankees lure him away if they opt to move on from Cashman? The only reason that’s even a thought right now is because the A’s are the bottom of the barrel yet again with a rebuild on the horizon. How many more times does Beane want to play out his Westworld fate under owner John Fisher?

Perhaps it’s time for a change of scenery, a budget big enough to foster competition, and a more successful analytical approach than Cashman’s in New York. If Beane can blend his philosophy with quadruple the budget, the Yankees can finally fulfill their quest to be more like the Dodgers, who allowed former Rays exec Andrew Friedman to live that reality.

1. David Stearns

How about … someone younger, though? According to MLBTradeRumors.com, the terms of Brewers general manager David Stearns’ contract aren’t known, but there’s a belief he could be a free agent after 2022 (or possess some sort of vesting option for 2023). But then there was a report from SNY’s Andy Martino suggesting that if the Brewers don’t make the World Series, he’ll remain under contract through 2023.

The Mets tried to poach him this offseason, but made no traction.

However, if he loses the NL Central to the St. Louis Cardinals, does that change what Brewers owner Mark Attanasio had in mind? Stearns, who is just 37 years old, is one of the brightest young minds in the game, and perhaps that’s the fresh perspective the Yankees need at this moment.

Stearns took over for the Brew Crew in Sept. of 2015, and the “rebuild” lasted one year. After six straight years of no postseason berths, Stearns got the Brewers back there in 2018 (which featured a seven-game NLCS loss to the Dodgers), and they’ve reached the postseason every year since.

That’s been with a bottom-half payroll to work with, too. What if Stearns is allowed some aggression? Perhaps he’ll target the right free agents, considering he’s been largely restricted from doing so the past seven years. On top of that, he’s fleeced countless teams in trades, so he’ll always have that working for him (Cashman’s favorite thing to attempt to do, but which he only does half the time).

Though his draft track record isn’t the best … it really can’t get worse than the Yankees’, who have only recently improved their wildly flawed system/philosophy that’s persisted under Cashman for two decades. Nonetheless, Stearns’ proven track record in his first years on the job as a big-time executive is all the Yankees need to interest them, should they look for a Cashman replacement.

Does Brian Cashman’s job hinge on a Yankees World Series appearance?

Based on how things are looking at the moment, it seems as if general manager Brian Cashman's job is hinging on a New York Yankees World Series berth.