In one comment made to the media yesterday, Brian Cashman managed to upset the Yankees’ crosstown rivals as well as a portion of his own fanbase. Marc Carig has more:
“He was abused,” Cashman said this afternoon. “Listen, I don’t know, the concern is based on the MRI. The use pattern was abusive, but the MRI itself shows what he’s got. And that leads us to believe all that is resolvable and that it’s not a major issue, just a timing issue.”
[...]
, the Mets’ pitching coach, said that this is all information the Yankees knew when they signed him and that none of the innings Feliciano pitched was forced.“He volunteered for the baseball every day,” Warthen said. “He was asked whether he was able to pitch. He said ‘Yes’ every day. Every day. And wanted to pitch more than we even pitched him. So I feel badly that someone feels that way. But that was part of the reason that we decided not to re-sign him, because we knew we had used him 270-some times in the last three years.”
[...]
“It’s a thin market when you’re out there looking for lefties, and he’s one of the better ones out there,” [Cashman] said. “But you don’t typically run to sign up guys that have been used like that.”
Regarding the content of Cashman’s statement, many reacted by wondering why the Yankees signed Feliciano if they felt that he had been abused. However, as Cashman alludes to, all he is saying is that the club was aware of the risks inherent to a pitcher who had been used like Perpetual Pedro was and decided to sign him anyhow. Every free agent pitcher comes with a set of risks that could cut against signing him. The best you can do is assess your needs, the market, and the risks, and make a calculated decision based on those factors. You can quibble with the signing all you want, but to think that Cashman did not know Feliciano’s usage history when he signed him or to that he did not consider the risk at all is pretty naive. If a GM never took a calculated risk, he’d never sign anybody, and a team with the resources of the Yankees can afford to take the odd risk when presented with a thin market.
All that said, it is hard to deny that Cashman’s statement was tactless and never should have been uttered. If he wanted to inform the media that the club had been aware of the risk when they signed Feliciano, he could have said something like ‘a pitcher with that sort of mileage on him is always a risk.’ Instead, he seemed to blame the Mets for the injury, which comes off as petty and shifts the blame where it does not belong. When you take a calculated risk and it blows up on you, you have to accept the blame when people lay it at your feet, just as you would want to be credited if your gambit had paid off. While the story of as a Yankee has yet to be written, the end result will rightfully be attributed to Cashman, not the Mets. For now, with Feliciano hitting the DL before ever pitching an inning for the Yankees, Cash needs to simmer down and accept the criticism that comes his way.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
Instead, he seemed to blame the Mets for the injury, which comes off as petty and shifts the blame where it does not belong. When you take a calculated risk and it blows up on you, you have to accept the blame when people lay it at your feet, just as you would want to be credited if your gambit had paid off.
Bingo. Can’t add anything other than to say I agree completely.
[Reply]
Feliciano threw 10 or fewer pitches last year in 50% of his games. I don’t really think he was overworked or abused (this isn’t Scott Proctor we’re talking about). Cashman’s comments were just strange. Over a 2 year span Proctor pitched in 166 games, facing 808 batters. In the past 3 years Feliciano has pitched in 266 games, yet only faced 759 batters.
[Reply]
Pete C. Reply:
April 3rd, 2011 at 11:19 am
How often did he warm up only to sit down? Is there any way to know?
[Reply]
Reply:
April 3rd, 2011 at 11:24 am
No, and that is a good point that he did have to warm up for all of these games, but I still would consider the “abuse” aspect overblown. These guys throw every day as it is.
[Reply]
There have been a few times in the last year or so that I’ve wondered why Cashman doesn’t seem to be measuring his words as carefully as he used to, and this was definitely one of them.
Imagine Cashman’s reaction if another team’s GM said something disparaging about the Yankees based on their assessment of a free agent that other team signed? This was a very strange thing for Cashman to say.
[Reply]
Reply:
April 3rd, 2011 at 11:15 am
If Cashman is so concerned with the “abuse” of a pitcher, where were these comments during the Torre years? I’ve been a fan of Cashman’s openness this offseason (in an amused way, not necessarily a good for the team way), but this was just dumb.
[Reply]
Moshe Mandel Reply:
April 3rd, 2011 at 11:33 am
Well, we don’t know what was going in behind the scenes. He wasn’t going to call out his own manager. We do know that they were aware of it and therefore made the Joba rules. Again, it seems they considered the risk and decided to go ahead and pitch the hell out of the Proctors and Sturtzes and then toss them aside when they were used up.
[Reply]
Moshe Mandel Reply:
April 3rd, 2011 at 11:37 am
Or, alternatively, they learned from those guys and that’s what the Joba rules stemmed from.
[Reply]
Reply:
April 3rd, 2011 at 11:45 am
I’d guess this, because the abuse didn’t end for the other guys, it just never had a chance to start with Joba.
[Reply]
Yeah, you really gotta think Cashman wants that back. All he does is look bad.
Everybody steps on their johnson though, and it looks like he just took a turn.
[Reply]
How can u possibly defend Cashman on this? There were plenty of lefty specialists available. You don’t sign the abused one!?!
[Reply]
Moshe Mandel Reply:
April 3rd, 2011 at 2:30 pm
Read what I wrote. I didn’t say one word regarding whether it actually was a good move. And name effective lefty specialists that were available and dependable. You will find few.
[Reply]
[...] it just makes him seem like an idiot. If you KNEW he was too broken, why sign him at all? Moshe makes a good point, that the Yankees have a little flexibility to take on additional risk. No one would deny the Mets [...]