Monday, July 20, 2009

Cash Revisits Johan Santana

No one non-trade has defined a General Manager's career like the Johan Santana non-trade has defined Brian Cashman. Since Cash tied his fate to Phil Hughes and other young players, he has taken a lot of heat. However, he has no regrets according to this Tyler Kepner article. From the article:
“I’m very comfortable with the decision we made back with the Santana situation,” he said. “Right now, we’ve got Sabathia where the Santana money is, I’ve got a center fielder in Melky, I’ve got Phil Hughes performing for us, and I’ve got Swisher in right, which Jeffrey Marquez was in the deal to help me get.

“So right now, I believe the organization is in a better position because of that type of decision-making. I know people still like to debate it. Debate all they want, I think it was the smart and right move, and we’re stronger than we would have been with one player and the money attached to the player without all the extra players we have now.”
This would seem to indicate that he'll be staying away from Doc Halladay and later in the article he said that they were not planning to trade for a starter. That I'm not sure I buy. If somebody struggles or gets hurt then you can count on the Yankees bringing somebody in.

6 Comments:

Anonymous said...

Cashman is right. Yanks have to keep their best young players, because their rivals have many good young players either in the minor league system or on their rosters now (see boston and tampa). Plus Baltimore will be rising and more competitive in the division eventually with good young players. then out west, you have the Angels with a mix of good young players and their farm system is loaded. A core of young players helped the Yanks to those titles in the 90's. It could happen again. I am glad Cashman thinks this out.

Mike N. said...

I agree 100%

Greg Cohen said...

I also agree. I was against the trade from the beginning, it was way too much to give up at the time.

Plus, I still don't know how well Johan would do pitching in the AL East.

Anonymous said...

Santana would likely have an ERA north of 3 if he where in the AL East.

He really isn't the same pitcher as he was with the Twins.
He no longer throws mid nineties. And because of that there isn't much separation between his change and FB.

Danny said...

This was one move that I can't criticize him for and I hope he sticks to this philosophy and not pursue Halladay. I have no problem with the pieces he's assembled just problems with organizational and coaching decisions on how they are used and not used, as well as youngster who do perform getting buried.

Anonymous said...

It makes more sense, if they need a starter to keep all our young guys for the future. Pettite may retire after the season and who knows what is going to happen with Wang, and outside of Lackey nobody on the free agent market seems appealing. Before he got hurt, I thought Gil Meche of Kansas City might be a solid option.