If Brian Cashman's response to 'urgency' is true, then how can Yankees explain last 5 years?

No matter how depressingly familiar this current swoon might feel, at least one aspect of the New York Yankees' season so far has been a breath of fresh air: After years of staying calm even when their house was actively on fire, the team's decision-makers are finally refusing to take anything — or anyone — for granted.

From swapping Luis Gil for Elmer Rodriguez to aggressive promotions for both Jasson Dominguez and Spencer Jones to forcing Anthony Volpe to bide his time in Triple-A, most of New York's roster moves so far have been focused on winning as many games as possible rather than protecting egos — a welcome surprise to anyone who's followed this team over the last few years.

Anyone, that is, except for Brian Cashman. In an interview with Chris Kirschner of The Athletic last week, Cashman insisted that he had no idea what the fuss was all about, that this was exactly how his front office has always conducted itself.

“I know there’s this narrative that all of a sudden we woke up and smelled the coffee,” Cashman said. “None of that is true. We are acting the same way as we did in years gone by. We just have more legitimate alternative choices to turn to, if they present themselves. I don’t feel like there’s anything different right now.”

There's just one problem here, Brian: The rest of us have eyes, and ears, and memories that stretch back longer than two months.

Brian Cashman isn't fooling anyone about his past failures with Yankees

It's obviously convenient for Cashman to argue that he's always been this way, but unfortunately the facts say otherwise. Lest we forget that this is the same team that continued to run Volpe out at shortstop every day last season despite his struggles at the plate and in the field, and despite the fact that they knew he was compromised by a shoulder injury that would eventually require surgery. The same team that thought Alex Verdugo was fine in left field in 2024, that twisted itself into knots and sabotaged one of its best players in Jazz Chisholm Jr. just to carve out a regular role for the corpse of DJ LeMahieu.

Compare that to this season, which has already seen both Ryan McMahon and Austin Wells — established veterans the front office has quite a bit invested in — lose playing time due to lack of production.

It's not as though the Yankees are in win-now mode now in a way that they haven't been in the past; this team is always in win-now mode, especially every year in which Aaron Judge is healthy and in his prime. They're just finally starting to act like it, no matter what Cashman wants to sell you.

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