About a week and a half ago sources told ESPN's Buster Olney that the Yankees were working on a new contract for general manager Brian Cashman. The reports were true and he'll be remaining with the team for another three years.
Cashman will now be entering his 18th season with the New York Yankees. The 47-year-old was hired after the 1997 season and was the GM and senior vice president for four World Series championships (six appearances) as well as a total of 14 postseason appearances in 17 seasons. However, he's been at the helm for the past two seasons when the Yankees failed to make the playoffs - the first time that's happened since the 1992 and 1993 seasons.
Nonetheless, Cashman's work as general manager has been good enough to keep the Yankees a winning team despite their recent woes. Injuries plagued the roster for all of 2014 and the Alex Rodriguez controversy regarding the Biogenesis scandal didn't help over the past two years either. But the Yankees' GM did a tremendous job filling in the holes on the roster throughout this past year, keeping them in playoff discussions up until the final week of the regular season.
The terms of his new contract haven't been disclosed, but his last three-year deal was worth about $9 million. The Yankees obviously trust Cashman enough to undertake a new task in essentially reconstructing the roster. New York has rarely been in such a position, but now with Derek Jeter retiring and not many formidable prospects, Cashman will have to use his experience in a different manner as he sets his sights on solving a number of issues.
They have no shortstop and there are question marks at second and third base (they'll likely use Martin Prado at one of those positions, but Rodriguez's return is relatively unknown at this point). First base and right field also seem to be an issue since Mark Teixeira and Carlos Beltran can't stay healthy and Ichiro Suzuki may not want to return to the team.
It's also unknown at this point if the Yankees will spend a lot of money in the offseason like they did last year, with the acquisitions of Beltran, Jacoby Ellsbury, Brian McCann and Masahiro Tanaka. There are few valuable position players available, but pitchers Jon Lester, James Shields and Max Scherzer will be hitting the open market, which could interest the team since their starting rotation is a bit iffy right now.
Now that the team has settled things with Cashman, they should be good to go for the offseason.
