David Cone pulls perfect Cashman quote to endorse Yankees’ recent moves

Despite the New York Yankees “running it back” long-term with both Brian Cashman and Aaron Boone this offseason, below the surface, the team clearly had some designs all along of installing a few supplementary load-bearing beams.

This past week, New York imported three-time World Series champion (and former Yankees executive) Brian Sabean and ex-Mets GM Omar Minaya to oversee … well, the process of winning titles in 2023 and the years to come.

The team’s light-on-specifics surprise announcements have led to plenty of speculating. Will Sabean and Minaya’s keen scouting eyes be used to assess prospects and form better trade packages moving forward? Were these moves an acknowledgment that the Yankees’ analytics team has gone too far, finally introducing some sorely-missed balance? Were Sabean and Minaya brought in against Cashman’s wishes?

The latter seems downright impossible, while the other two points can be debated endlessly until we see the results of the process.

Bottom line? Cashman self-diagnosed (we think) some faults in his recent tenure — or simply spotted some well-regarded talent on the loose and decided to rein it in (Sabean, specifically, said he called the Yankees, not the other way around). As David Cone laid out on this week’s episode of Toeing the Slab, these moves were right in line with Cashman’s philosophy of knowing enough to cover his own blind spots.

Yankees filled in Brian Cashman’s knowledge gaps with Brian Sabean, Omar Minaya hires. We hope.

Remember when Cone interviewed for the pitching coach gig?! And the whole world wanted him to get it? At this point, the former Yankees righty is an obviously magnetic figure and pitching guru, but Cashman again likely hired the “right guy” here in Matt Blake. Who knows how this era of Yankees baseball progresses without Cash “deferring” and surrounding himself with the proper talent there?

Cone laid out further that, fans’ dreams of warring analytic factions aside, the Yankees have added two “high-quality people” here who help give the front office additional networking advantages. Not every move has to involve a dismantling of the status quo — and, besides, no one criticizing the Yankees for being over-reliant on analytics has ever been inside that building.

Whether there’s an endgame or not, Cashman saw an opportunity to add two experts/baseball lifers who were enthusiastic about joining the team’s mission. It’s not an admission of guilt. It’s the natural next step of his long-standing philosophy — and an impressive one.