Grading Brian Cashman and the New York Yankees front office at midseason

As both the dean of Major League team chief executives and general manager of its most powerful club, Brian Cashman lives in a world of high expectations. Through the first half of 2023, Cashman’s New York Yankees lag in third place in the AL East.

Is Cashman on his way to an operational failure in the Yankees’ front office? Is he, in a word, slipping?

Grading the New York Yankees at the midway point of the 2023 season

What follows is a mid-term assessment of Cashman’s personnel decisions since the conclusion of the 2022 World Series with a particular focus on the extent to which those decisions have helped or hindered the Yankees’ performance.

The standard of measurement in Wins Above Average (WAA), a variant of Wins Above Replacement (WAR). For this purpose, WAA is preferable because unlike WAR, it is zero-based. That means the sum of all the decisions made by Cashman impacting the 2023 team gives at least a good estimate of the number of games those moves have improved (or worsened) the team’s status this season.

A team’s front office impacts that team’s standing in five ways. Those five are:

1.       By the impact of players it acquires from other teams via trade, purchase or waiver claim.

2.       By the impact of players it surrenders to other teams in those same transactions.

3.       By the impact of players it signs at free agency or extends.

4.       By the impact of players it loses to free agency or releases.

5.       By the impact of players it promotes from its own farm system.

Here’s how Cashman stacks up by those five yardsticks.

Acquired or traded

The Yankees were an active trade participant last season, acquiring such assets as Josh Donaldson, Harrison Bader, Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Jose Trevino.

We haven’t arrived at the trade deadline yet, and things may ramp up over the next few weeks. But to this point in 2023, only five players have been exchanged by the Yankees in transactions with other teams, none of them a central figure.

In fact, the most important trade acquisition to New York thus far this season is a fellow most Yankee fans had never heard of prior to this season, outfielder Jake Bauers.

The Yankees bought Bauers (-0.5 WAA) in 2022 from the Cincinnati Reds on the off chance that they needed backup in the outfield; Bauers wasn’t much of a hitter, but he could play first base or corner outfield. Lo and behold, Aaron Judge got hurt and suddenly Bauers was getting semi-regular time. He still isn’t an offensive threat — he’s batting  .225 in 138 plate appearances — but he’s healthy.

New York’s departures to other teams have been even less numerous and less dramatic. In fact, only one 2022 Yankee has been lost to another club due to a team-to-team transaction.

That lone player is pitcher Lucas Luetge (-0.6), who went to Atlanta in December with a minor leaguer for another minor leaguer. Luetge got a nine-game look in the Braves bullpen, resulting in a 10.24 ERA and an invitation to try Double A for a while.

Free agency

Historically, the Yankees’ approach to free agency has been simple: If you want something, buy it.

This winter, that meant winning a bidding war for AL home run record setter Aaron Judge. It cost $360 million through 2031, but, in December, Cashman got his man. Hey, it’s only money.

Then Judge got hurt, restricting his availability to 49 games. They’ve been good games, involving 19 home runs, a .291 average and a 1.7 WAA. Even good GMs can’t always prevent injury.

Cashman also re-signed first baseman Anthony Rizzo, in his case for $54 million through 2025. Rizzo’s batting .268 with 11 home runs and a +0.4 WAA. Is that recompense for one-half season’s worth of $54 million? The Yanks may think so.

Overall, Cashman signed, re-signed or extended 13 free agents to a collective value of +4.0 WAA. The Yankees may have a lot of money, but at least they seem to use it productively.

They did lose seven players to the open market, and the scope of those losses has been varied. Veteran starter Jameson Taillon (-1.5) went to Chicago’s North Side, and if the Cubs don’t fight their way above .500 Taillon (2-6 with a 6.90 ERA) may well be the reason. Veteran closer Aroldis Chapman (+0.5) signed with Kansas City. The latter is having a nice season; unfortunately, he’s having it for the Kansas City Royals so nobody knows about it.

Aaron Hicks (+0.3), basically run out of the Bronx, landed in Baltimore and has found regular productive work there.

Farm system

The farm system news in the Bronx has been all about shortstop Anthony Volpe. Promoted at season’s start, Volpe hasn’t shown the offensive punch his fans hoped for. He’s batting .208 and, despite 10 home runs, his .658 OPS says more work needs to be done in that area.

Defensively, however, Volpe has been perfectly fine. He’s compiled 6 Defensive Runs Saved and, last time I checked, shortstop was a defense-first position. The defense is a large part of the reason why despite that low batting average Volpe still rates a +0.8 WAA. It may not look like it to the casual observer, but Volpe has made it.

The less heralded rookie find has been reliever Ron Marinaccio. In 33 bullpen appearances covering 35 innings, he’s sitting at a 3.06 ERA and a +0.2 WAA.

Cashman has had some success developing system products into stars. Judge was a system product, as in part was Gleyber Torres. On the current Yankee roster, Michael King, Jonathan Loaisiga, Domingo German, Luis Severino and, of course Judge and Torres, all came up through that system.

That plus his defensive stability suggests that given time Volpe will mature into a central piece of the Yankee scheme, if not an offensive powerhouse.