It only took 10 minutes for Yankees to slap fans in the face during Cashman, Steinbrenner Zoom

The Tampa Bay Rays and Milwaukee Brewers are preparing to battle it out in the World Series after building more with less for decades, repeatedly reloading, recalibrating, and innovating in a field where too much feels stagnant. Other teams have been chasing the Rays' methods from six years ago, still addicted to the three true outcomes, while Tampa Bay, Milwaukee, Cleveland and others have tossed that staleness in the trash bin and sought new overlooked statistics to buy into and create advantages.

In an entirely unrelated note, the leadership core of the power-and-strikeout-heavy New York Yankees held their end-of-season press availabilities over Zoom on Wednesday afternoon. Hal Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman appeared first. Steinbrenner reiterated that Aaron Boone "managed a good season" and blamed the players, not the roster construction, for a disappointing October performance.

He affirmed that he still has a championship-or-bust mentality, which is a nice, easy thing to say that can buy a person a few minutes (or months, pending lockout) as they attempt to decide whether they feel like backing it up or not.

With Steinbrenner by his side, Cashman also announced that he'd agreed on a new contract with the Yankees, marking the free agent reunion the whole fan base was waiting for.

We all knew, deep down, that after nearly three decades at the helm, there would be no firing of Brian Cashman, nor would there be a contract expiration without bombast. He will dictate his departure. He will announce his succession plan. He will make it perfectly clear that the time is nigh, then will hand the reins to a disciple. There was a zero percent chance of a dismissal in absentia, but there was a four percent chance he was going to announce on Wednesday that he was growing weary and felt a change was in order.

Nope. New deal.

Aaron Boone hasn't earned a Yankees extension, but isn't dead yet!

And, while the collective face of the fanbase was already ringing with the residual effects of the first slap, Steinbrenner also endorsed Boone a bit more strongly than it seemed the organization had any intention of doing.

No, he won't be getting a contract extension beyond 2027 - yet. He'll start the season as a lame duck.

But while no conversations have taken place, Steinbrenner reiterating how good a job Boone did indicates they certainly could be on the horizon.

Not Boone's fault. The players' fault. But don't blame the guy who brought in the players who failed - he stays, too, and gets to pick the new players.

Call me crazy if you'd like, but at a certain point, if the locker room message regarding preparation and tightening at the margins is growing stale, and the players continue folding under pressure, maybe the man delivering the message should change, as should the person who keeps targeting folding players and outdated models of lineup building ("Oops, all lefties, but their power will lead us anyway -- oops, they can't hit for power against good pitching").

Boone's solo press conference follows at 11:30 EST. Maybe he'll respond to some hard-hitting questions or address deficiencies instead of announcing re-ups and cupcakes for all parties responsible for 2025 and 2026's continued backslide towards good-not-great irrelevance. Or maybe his connection will cut out and reporters will lose the signal on the call.

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