A year after Juan Soto dominated during his lone season in The Bronx, the Yankees are in first place in the AL East, and the players they pivoted to after losing out to the Mets on the right fielder have played a significant role in keeping them there.
Now Soto is with the Mets, slumping after a mostly miserable Subway Series in The Bronx and having to explain why he’s not running out fly balls, while the Yankees have hardly missed a beat and are taking advantage of a weak division.
General manager Brian Cashman, not surprisingly, is pleased with his team’s results for the first six-plus weeks of the year.
“We’re certainly happy with the way this team is coming together,’’ said Cashman, who was at financial services firm BTIG’s annual Charity Day, where he represented Covenant House.
“They’re grinding on a daily basis. We’ve got a long way to go.”
Brian Cashman’s offseason signings of Max Fried, Paul Goldschmidt and Cody Bellinger have paid dividends for the Yankees.
Certainly, the early results indicate that the famous pivot the Yankees took after Soto turned down their 16-year, $760 million offer for a 15-year, $765 million deal with the Mets has worked out as well as they could have hoped.
Without Soto’s salary, the Yankees signed left-hander Max Fried to an eight-year, $218 million deal and Paul Goldschmidt to a one-year $12.5 million deal, and traded with the Cubs for Cody Bellinger, who was owed $25 million this season and has a $25 million player option for next season.
So far this year, Fried has been perhaps the best pitcher in the sport, leading the majors with a 1.29 ERA through his first 10 starts; Goldschmidt is hitting as well as he did in his prime despite being 37; and Bellinger has seemingly found his swing after a rough first few weeks to the season.
On the success of the newcomers, Cashman said, “You try to go to the marketplace and figure things out, between what we have and what we don’t have, and try to run into some opportunities. They’ve been doing what we’d hoped.”
And that doesn’t stop now.
With Memorial Day approaching, the time of year when teams traditionally begin to really assess their teams, Cashman acknowledged more work could still be done with the new-look roster.
Max Fried has seamlessly taken over the Yankees’ ace role with Gerrit Cole being injured.
“If we can improve on things, we’ll try to do that, as well,” Cashman said.
Asked if the team needs a third baseman in the wake of Oswaldo Cabrera’s fractured ankle likely sidelining him for the rest of the season, the GM said, “We’ll see. It’s hard to make improvements this part of the season. We’ve got what we’ve got. We’ll assess it and move forward with opportunities as they start to present themselves at whatever positions they do.”
For now, the Yankees have Oswald Peraza and Jorbit Vivas mostly splitting time at third, with Peraza starting there Tuesday night for the series opener against the Rangers in The Bronx.
Paul Goldschmidt, who has been hitting like he did in his prime, celebrates with teammates after scoring a run during an earlier game in May.
The addition of Devin Williams to the bullpen in a trade with Milwaukee was initially a disaster, but the right-hander has been better in a setup role for Luke Weaver, and Aaron Boone said Tuesday there are no plans for putting Williams back in the closer role.
Beyond that, the offense has relied heavily on Aaron Judge, in the midst of another historic season.
“That’s Aaron being Aaron,’’ Cashman said. “He’s always someone you can count on.”
But Cashman is not putting too much importance on being in first place in May.
“Our guys are grinding and fighting to get wins every day,” Cashman said. “Like any team, we’re rolling through the ups and the downs of the season. We’ve got a long way to go.”
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