February 1, 2008 Carrying a Heavy Weight, Cashman Stands Firm By TYLER KEPNER When Brian Cashman tells the story of how he became the Yankees’ general manager, he makes his voice squeaky, like a teenager’s, as he tries to sound confident before the principal owner George Steinbrenner. That was Feb. 3, 1998, and a decade later, Cashman’s voice is the most powerful in the organization. He answers to two Steinbrenners — George’s sons, Hank and Hal — but it is Cashman who guides the franchise. “He has really strengthened the office of general manager of the Yankees,” said Bob Watson, who held the title before Cashman. Cashman made that clear again this week, when he refused to depart from his long-term strategy and passed on the Minnesota Twins ace Johan Santana, who went to the Mets instead. The Yankees would have traded Phil Hughes, Melky Cabrera and Jeff Marquez for Santana on Dec. 2, but the Twins asked for Ian Kennedy, too. The Yankees said no, and the next morning, Andy Pettitte announced that he would return to the team. The Yankees soon pulled their offer and never made another, resisting again Tuesday when Minnesota asked for Cabrera, Kennedy, Marquez and Chien-Ming Wang. Cashman has made his stand, and Santana may be across town to remind him of what might have been. Cashman is entering the last year of a three-year contract he signed after the 2005 season, when the baseball operations department was organized into clearly defined roles beneath him. George Steinbrenner is all but retired now, but the pressure from above, and the self-imposed pressure Cashman and all club officials handle, has put his return beyond 2008 in question. “It’s hard to imagine him going somewhere, because he understands this unique environment, but it’s also demanding,” said Mark Newman, the Yankees’ senior vice president for player personnel and a co-worker of Cashman’s for 20 years. “Just the nature of working here, day after day, it’s a huge grind,” Newman added. “There are tremendous stresses to deal with, and it can wear you out. Everybody needs to take a deep breath once in a while, take a step back and make sure they’re not going to burn out. But he knows the situation.” Cashman started as an intern in the minor league and scouting department at 19, and he was 30 when he became the general manager. Only three other general managers who were on the job then are still in the same job now. Ernie Accorsi, the former Giants general manager who retired last season at 65, named Cashman as one of his favorite people in sports in Tom Callahan’s book, “The GM,” which Cashman is reading this winter. Accorsi said he admired Cashman’s toughness and passion. “But, I always remember a quote from Jack Nicklaus from about 10 years ago,” Accorsi said in an e-mail message. “ ‘You can only look at so many five-foot pressure putts with everything on the line in one lifetime.’ I know I retired because I just couldn’t look at any more five-foot putts on Sunday afternoons. I don’t think Brian is anywhere near that in his career.” In 2003, Cashman traveled to Cincinnati at Steinbrenner’s behest, simply to be there for the awkwardly timed announcement that Derek Jeter was being named the captain. Never mind that Cashman’s wife was due to deliver their child any day. In recent years, Cashman has been more comfortable standing up for himself; a winter family getaway is now an annual tradition, and he will attend the Super Bowl on Sunday. But the subject of his future, and the examination of his past, is such a sensitive topic that Cashman declined to be interviewed for this article. Through a team spokesman, he said he was concerned it would sound like his obituary. Cashman spoke last week at an event with Red Sox General Manager Theo Epstein at William Paterson University in Wayne, N.J. Surprisingly, Cashman spoke critically of Bernie Williams, Johnny Damon and Bobby Abreu, and said his team was not mentally tough enough to withstand the bug swarm in Cleveland in last fall’s division series. According to people who have spoken with him, Cashman has expressed remorse over those comments. Usually deft as the Yankees’ primary spokesman, Cashman is struggling with Hank Steinbrenner’s quick ascension to that role. At times, Cashman has seemed especially cautious; at other times, unusually candid. “The big question is going to be how he relates to the new leadership,” said Watson, who recommended Cashman to the Yankees’ ownership. “Hank is different than his brother, Hal, and they’re both different than Steve Swindal and Joe Molloy. All those people we were working for, each one of them had a different style. It remains to be seen how he adjusts to them and how they adjust to him.” Molloy and Swindal are former sons-in-law of George Steinbrenner who no longer work for the team. Hank and Hal are in charge now, and their roles will affect Cashman as he seeks to hold onto the power he assumed in 2005. Hank Steinbrenner, 50, is not as detail-oriented as his father; he is not apt to demand new carpeting in the training room. He is a passionate fan, in tune with the sport’s history, driven to win and often willing to speak his mind. Hal, 38, is considered more fiscally conservative, and he rarely speaks in public. Cashman got what he wanted this winter. The Yankees re-signed their veterans while protecting their top prospects and also gaining a 2008 draft pick for letting reliever Luis Vizcaino sign with Colorado. But there is a belief in the industry that it has been a trying winter for Cashman as he adjusts to the team’s new leadership, and the possibility that decisions could be made without his consent. “Brian is classy, straightforward and honest,” said an official of a team that has dealt extensively with the Yankees. “But it’s got to be uncomfortable to finally get in the position where he had more authority, and now it seems like it’s kind of gone back to the way it was before.” Pat Gillick, the Philadelphia Phillies’ general manager, once resigned as the Baltimore Orioles’ G.M. because of differences with the owner, Peter Angelos. Speaking generally, Gillick said, an owner who interferes with baseball decisions risks losing his best people. “What it does is erode some of the confidence of the people working for you,” Gillick said. “There’s a chain of command and a code of conduct that has to be followed by every member of an organization. When that’s broken, it’s not good.” Gillick said Cashman and Epstein probably had the most difficult job of any general manager, because their resources were so deep that they had more decisions to make. No situation can be immediately dismissed for financial reasons, so every available player must be evaluated. Cashman’s Yankees have not won the World Series since doing so in his first three seasons. But they have reached the playoffs every October, a feat that is remarkable to Accorsi. “I don’t think anyone in sports has the record of excellence in their jobs as Brian,” Accorsi said. “Everyone, even Bill Belichick, has had a few down seasons. But Brian gets to a championship threshold every year under the highest scrutiny possible and in the biggest city in America.” The scrutiny became harsher last week, when Hank Steinbrenner told The Associated Press that if the Yankees missed the playoffs in 2008, he would not blame the players but would hold the architects of the team responsible. That put the emphasis on Cashman. The easy move for Cashman, under those conditions, would have been to recommend a trade for Santana, which might have made the Yankees better this season and strengthened Cashman’s job security. But Cashman has tried to focus on the future, on bolstering the farm system while digging out from years of wild spending, some of which he endorsed. According to Baseball America, the Yankees spent $13.7 million on draft picks the last two seasons, compared with $8.5 million the two years before that. Some recent choices, like Kennedy and Joba Chamberlain, could make a big impact in the majors this season for very little cost. Whether or not he is here beyond 2008, his friends say, Cashman wants the team to prosper for the next decade and beyond. Accorsi recalled a conversation with Cashman at Giants Stadium a few years ago. Talking about their jobs, Cashman told Accorsi, “I feel the responsibility of millions of Yankee fans on my shoulders, fans who take this very seriously and for which every game is very important. I think of that every day.” As a peer, Accorsi said, he could relate to Cashman. As a Yankees fan since the 1950s, Accorsi was moved. “I love the fact that Brian is running my boyhood team,” he said. http://tinyurl.com/243zpn --

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