From Joel Sherman, a good interview with Hal Steinbrenner, and the whole “Cashman’s committing career suicide” stuff is overblown:
“[Cashman] and I have a great working relationship. There is no problem, right now. I think we have had a bunch of drummed-up drama.”
This is both comforting and reassuring.
“I value his opinion and his advice. That does not mean I am always going to go with that advice and all of my VPs know that I might go a different way. There are no hard feelings between Cash and I. There never was. Reasonable men can differ in opinions.
“I keep reading about dissension and discord. We are a well-functioning company. The bosses have a decision to make. Sometimes people don’t agree with those decisions. So I told him, ‘You are always honest with the media, be honest now. Tell them what you have to tell them.’ I was already onto the next decision. I told him, ‘You and I are fine. Answer in any way you want.’ We are not always going to be on the same page. It is my job to think what is best for the family, partners and company.”
There’s a part of this that makes me think about the moment when your significant other asks you if she looks fat in those jeans and the concept of honesty is somehow twisted a bit. I am sure Hal encouraged Cashman to continue to be honest, but perhaps wasn’t expecting this level of honesty. Either way, perhaps we can put this behind us now.
The more I think about it, I don't get why we're still paying any credence to the tabloid nonsense that came out of the WFAN breakfast. When you really parse it out, he gave the safe answer to most of the questions. Jeter staying at short? Well, you can't very well commit yourself to that and try to deal with it later if he has to change positions, so why not give a non-committal answer in the direction of the most likely outcome? Joba? Hey, we've all noticed his velocity is down, and we've all speculated that his injury is the culprit. So if everyone from RAB to Sam's Yankees' Blog has noticed it, you can safely bet the other 29 teams have done the same. Not exactly news.
I also don't really get the "new Cashman" meme. Cashman has always been pretty blunt when it comes to answering questions, he did the WFAN breakfast thing last year too, and he was pretty candid about everything from the Hughes-Joba thing to Jeter and Mo's contracts. I think he even answered a question about Jeter's future at SS, but don't quote me on that. But it wasn't much of a story, because the Yankees were coming off of a WS victory.
We've had a slow offseason, all things considered, since Cliff Lee signed with Philly. The papers, the Daily News in particular, are looking for stuff to write about, and since they're a tabloid, this is what they do.
{nods in agreement}