In the first three and a half months of a season, baseball teams will absolutely show their general managers if they’re worth supporting by the October close. Even though the 2021 Yankees almost screamed from a mountain top that they didn’t deserve that support, Brian Cashman still tried to save them.
He made moves for Anthony Rizzo, Joey Gallo, Clay Holmes and Andrew Heaney last summer. Well, two out of four isn’t bad.
Losing a wildcard playoff game loss in Boston, the Yankees returned this year meaner, leaner and, as manager Aaron Boone said, more ready and able to master the little things of the game that separate victory from loss. Despite the disheartening doubleheader sweep in Houston and losses in seven of their 10 games before Friday night and a costly 7-6 win over Baltimore, the Yankees showed 2022 Cashman they are most worthy of a helping hand.
At 65-30, they’ve told the GM they could win the franchise’s first World Series title since 2009… if only he can find them a player or two in the next 11 days who could help them, the Astros in the ALCS to beat.
Cashman may need one more move after Michael King left the mound on Friday night eight with an elbow injury that The Post’s Joel Sherman reported was likely a season-ending fracture. That brutal development could cost the Yankees another invaluable helper in the long run, forcing Holmes to make a short-term five-out save.
Brian Cashman Getty Images
Meanwhile, Aaron Judge blasted two home runs that combined 901 feet and kept him on course (with 36 home runs) to challenge Roger Maris’ magic number of 61 and helped the offense produce just enough to complete the predictable implosion of Aroldis Chapman to allow in the seventh.
But Judge won’t beat Houston unaided in the postseason, making Cashman the top player for the Yankees through the 6 p.m. close on Aug. 2.
That’s a good thing if you happen to meet at home.
First, Cashman has 25 years of experience running the most important franchise in esports, which is saying something.
Second, he knows what a championship team looks like. Chapman and Rizzo won their historic rings with the Cubs, and Marwin Gonzalez helped Houston win it all in 2017. But the vast majority of core Yankees will likely decide if they win the World Series — Richter, Gerrit Cole, Giancarlo Stanton, Holmes, DJ LeMahieu, Nestor Cortes, Gleyber Torres, Josh Donaldson, you name it — never have one won. Boone delivered a magical moment in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS that a baller could dream of in their wildest dreams, but he’s also never won a title.
Cashman has won four as a GM (five as a front-office man), although it feels like the last pinstripe parade was booked when Dwight Eisenhower was in the White House. The difference between this year and last year is that Cashman knows these Yankees have a real shot at winning a championship. He just tried and failed to make it happen with this seriously flawed group in 2021.
No matter how the Yankees replace King, or what the GM and Boone decide about the Bullpen and Chapman’s role (or lack thereof), it’s all about the Astros now. In the last seven seasons, Houston faced the Yankees three times in the playoffs and survived all three encounters, beating Joe Girardi’s team in the 2015 wild card round and the 2017 ALCS and Boone’s team in the 2019 ALCS. For all the New Yorkers who rightly yelled about the Astros’ cheating tactics, hey, they beat the Yankees too if they play fair and square.
Keep in mind that the Astros were in the World Series last year and the Yankees most certainly weren’t.
If this year’s regular season series was a postseason best-of-seven duel, Houston would have won it in six before doing an end zone dance in Thursday’s nightcap to make the final score five games to two. The Yankees played 64 innings against the Astros this year and retained the lead after two of them — the ninth and tenth innings on June 23 and June 26 in the Bronx.
Cashman understands that while he has the best record in the sport, he doesn’t have the best team in the American League. This is an issue and he has 11 days to resolve it. Everyone knows the available people including Juan Soto, Luis Castillo and Andrew Benintendi.
Brian Cashman, left, and Aaron JudgeCharles Wenzelberg / New York Post
As a 23-year-old slugger, World Series champion, and on-base percentage machine, Soto is in a league of his own. It seems Cashman’s best move would be to give the Nationals the prospects they want and then convince Hal Steinbrenner to remain open to the idea of signing Judge in the offseason and Soto after 2024, egregious luxury tax issues be damned.
But if the GM thinks it would be wiser to add, say, Castillo and a non-Soto player, then so be it. Either way, Cashman needs to draw on his experience like never before and make the critical moves to take his team past the Astros, who were effectively to today’s Yankees what Michael Jordan’s Bulls were to yesterday’s Knicks.
By August 2, Cashman needs to be what he sometimes has been in the past – baseball’s greatest GM. Despite being injured Friday night, these Yankees showed they are worthy of his help.