Brian Cashman has seen enough of the Yankees to offer a frank assessment as their wildly inconsistent season nears the midpoint.
“I know they urgently want to get on track, but I also know that we suck right now, as bad as you can be,” the general manager said Tuesday before the Yankees tried to snap a four-game losing streak against the Angels. “Trying to knock ourselves out of that is the effort, but until we get online and start playing high again, it’s gonna look bad. It plays bad and it stinks to high heavens. Right now, we gotta own that.
“I gotta call it like I see it: It’s pretty bad right now.”
But that doesn’t have Cashman ready to fire any of his coaching staff, as he offered a vote of confidence for Aaron Boone. His fourth-year manager headed into Tuesday’s game with a 40-38 record and 7 ½ games back of first place in the AL East, with the Red Sox, Rays and Blue Jays all ahead of the Yankees.
“This is not an Aaron Boone problem and this is not a coaching staff problem,” Cashman said. “They’re doing what they need to do but we’re not getting the results we need. They’ve got my support. We’re in this together.
“It’s easy from my chair to all of a sudden say, ‘You know what? Let me throw something overboard to satisfy the masses.’ It’s harder to actually stick with what you got because you believe in them. These people care, they’re working their asses off, they’re really good at what they do. We’re not getting the results. I’m the head of baseball operations, so that falls more on me than them.”
Last Thursday, the Yankees had closed the gap in the AL East to four games and flew to Boston with a chance to make up even more ground. Instead they got swept by the Red Sox for the second time this season — “We got our butts handed to us,” Cashman said — and then came home for another loss to the Angels on Monday night.
The team with the No. 2 payroll in baseball has not been able to put together any kind of consistent play this season, largely failing to live up to their lofty expectations that preceded them entering the season.
“We’re not giving up on our season,” Cashman said. “There’s enough time left, but there’s massive frustration by how it’s played out right now because we’ve pissed too many games away. We haven’t played to our expectations. It makes it, at times, unwatchable. That’s frustrating to be a part of because we’re used to so much different than that.”
Cashman reiterated Tuesday that he has been working the phones to find a trade that could upgrade the roster — left field, center field and starting pitching would be the most pressing areas — but said the market was still slow developing ahead of the July 30 deadline. He is currently a buyer but said that he could be forced to reassess those plans “if we fall like a stone.”
“Most of the heavy lifting has to come from within,” Cashman said. “If it doesn’t, me adding to it is not going to make a difference. I’m not giving up on it, but we are frustrated. I understand our fans are frustrated as hell watching it.”
As for why this roster — one that remains largely the same, besides starting pitching, as the 2019 version that reached the ALCS — has struggled to play up to its potential, Cashman said he didn’t have the answer.
“I don’t know. And I’m not ashamed to say I don’t know,” Cashman said. “We still don’t warrant being where we are in the standings with the talent we have. But it doesn’t matter saying that, we all have to do something about it, myself included, but the players themselves as well.”