Brian Cashman didn’t dance around the Yankees’ offseason priorities in Las Vegas. He went straight to the point: the bullpen is the area that needs the most work.
Speaking Tuesday at Major League Baseball’s general manager meetings, the Yankees’ GM made it clear that the back end of the roster is where the pressure is building this winter. That’s already been reflected in the $23.15 million qualifying offer extended to closer David Bednar, but Cashman framed that move as only the start of a much bigger bullpen puzzle.
“That’s probably our biggest need because we have so many vacancies of certainly important people that did a great job for us,” Cashman said. “(Brent) Headrick is still here, obviously, but with Timmy Hill and Bednar and Blackburn, all free agents, those guys were a really nice bridge for us late in the game and they were consistent throughout the whole year. We have to rebuild that.”
The numbers behind the uncertainty are hard to miss. Five of the seven Yankees who recorded a save last season are free agents, including Bednar, Ryan Yarbrough, Paul Blackburn, Tim Hill and John Schreiber. That leaves Cashman with a bullpen that could look very different by the time spring arrives.
Still, he said the organization isn’t limited to one path. The Yankees could piece things together from within, or they could look outside the building to shore up the late innings.
“That doesn’t mean that we don’t have answers from within that can handle it somehow some way,” Cashman said. “If I can pull down a trade or through free agency some individuals that make you sleep better at night, even though bullpens are volatile regardless, that would be a priority for me.”
Bednar appears to be the centerpiece of the discussion. Cashman pointed to the qualifying offer as a major factor in the equation and praised the right-hander’s poise and presence.
“Listen, we dropped a big qualifying number on him. That factored a lot,” Cashman said of Bednar’s ability to pitch under pressure in New York.
“He’s a cool customer. He provided, from what I understand, even though I’m not in the bullpen, obviously, but from what I hear from everybody involved, we’ve been very lucky over the course of time, for the most part, to have somebody with a strong presence and great leadership to lead out there.
He checked all those boxes along with the performance.
“I’ve had some good additions. I’ve had some not so good additions. He’s been a good addition so far, and hopefully we find a way to keep him so I can worry about surrounding him with more quality individuals that our manager can turn to late in the game to try to close things out.”
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