Who Is Actually Leading The Franchise?
Let’s rewind the clock to 2007. Alex Rodriguez was coming off another monster 35 HR, 121 RBI season. He opted out of his massive contract and did so by announcing it while the Red Sox were in the middle of capturing their second World Series title of the decade.
New York general manager Brian Cashman made it clear that A-Rod would not be re-signed if he opted-out of his deal. Upon further review, however, Cashman isn’t the boss.
A-Rod opted-out and then crawled back to the Steinbrenner’s to get his brand-spanking new 10-year, $275 million contract will heavy incentives revolving around him eventually wearing the crown as the MLB’s “clean HR king.”
This was just the first very public example of Cashman wanting to do one thing (which usually supports the idea of turning personnel over and getting younger), and ownership wanting to do something entirely different.
With each high-priced acquisition since then we’ve had to figure out which guy was Cashman’s and which was ownership’s. And with every passing example, it seems as though Cashman wants to turn the personnel younger while ownership fights to keep it veteran-laced.
Through it all, however, Cashman has had to endure the pain of seeing Boston quickly sell off its high-priced players and turn to youth rather quickly. One time it leading to a World Championship in 2013. Though the Los Angles Dodgers were the main culprit in helping the Sox, they did, indeed, get the job done in trading the likes of Josh Becket, Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford.
What the Sox saw then – even to this very day with the likes of Xander Bogaerts, Jackie Bradley Jr. and Mookie Betts – the Yankees haven’t been able to yet come to grips with.
Youngsters need a spot to play and time to develop.
