SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman was surrounded by reporters on all sides. Behind him, shots came on his bad track record with recent trades. To his left, barbs on the team’s player development program. To his right, inquiries on why rookie Anthony Volpe developed an uppercut swing leading to a poor offensive season. In front of him, a question on whether he was suggesting injuries and underperformance were the only reasons he believes the Yankees misfired in 2023.

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From all directions, Cashman was peppered by more than a dozen reporters for over an hour on the state of the Yankees at MLB’s GM meetings. He wore a pink golf shirt and stood defiantly as his arms hugged the sides of his body. His sunglasses likely hid a furrowed brow and the intense glare from his eyes. His face became redder as he passionately defended the Yankees against their critics from the first moment he spoke. He dropped F-bombs and challenged anyone who dared him to speak about the failings of his organization.

There is a scene in the 2001 film “Training Day” where actor Denzel Washington, who portrays a crooked cop in the movie, stands at the center of a circle surrounded by criminals and screams as spit flies out of his mouth about how he’s the one who actually runs the streets. Cashman did his best impersonation of Washington on Tuesday afternoon as he told all of his naysayers and the deniers of the team’s analytics department where they could shove their criticism.

“To say we are guided by analytics as a driver, it’s a lie,” Cashman said. “But that’s what people want to say. I know I can’t change that narrative. All I can continue to do is say, ‘Bull—-, not true.'”

Cashman claimed the Yankees have the smallest analytics department in the American League East. Reporting from The Athletic in 2018 showed the Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers had the biggest analytics departments in the sport at the time. Cashman’s claim could not immediately be verified by The Athletic, but it is a possibility that other teams could have ramped up their spending to increase staffing in the past five years. It’s also unclear how Cashman was counting staffing; the team has outside consultants who are not full-time Yankees employees, like Eric Cressey who runs the sports performance department.

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It’s ultimately not the size of the analytics department that makes a good group, but it’s obvious one of Cashman’s talking points on his agenda was to slam against those who believe the Yankees make their roster and in-game decisions based on numbers and algorithms spat out by computers.

“There’s a lot of stuff that’s not accurate that’s floating around about analytics took us offline,” Cashman said. “It’s the same people, same analytics group. One thing that we have is a very consistent, successful operation. Last year, obviously is the first year in a long time we took a dip, and it happens, but the same people that were responsible for us having a lot of success are somehow being focused as the blame game for the reason the 2023 season went south.”

It’s the same messaging Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner gave Tuesday morning when he also vehemently defended the team’s analytics and specifically took aim at people claiming manager Aaron Boone solely makes his decisions by whatever the analytics say.

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“Analytics has taken a lot of heat,” Steinbrenner said. “Not justified in my opinion. I think one of the misconceptions that’s out there, because I hear it from a lot of people, is that Boone makes every decision in the dugout during a game based on analytics. That’s just not true.”

One person who has been the source of immense external ire is assistant general manager Mike Fishman, the leader of the analytics group. Under his recommendation, the Yankees have partnered with Zelus Analytics. Under this partnership, the Yankees will examine the company’s internal analytics and see how they use their algorithms. Then, the team will compare it to how they run their own department and see if any blind spots need to be addressed. This is a year-long partnership, so it’s possible changes won’t come until 2025 in this area.

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After three days of internal meetings held at the team’s player development complex in Tampa shortly after the season ended, Cashman said one of the priorities was to “separate what was real versus what was bull—-.” What was “bull—-,” he landed on, was the unfair arrows aimed at the team’s analysts.

“People talk about we’re analytically driven, right? Do you know we have the smallest analytics department in the American League East? Is that a shocker to you guys?” Cashman said. “We have the largest pro scouting department in all of baseball. Is that a shocker to everybody? Shouldn’t be, but no one’s doing their deep dives. They’re just throwing ammunition and bull—- and accusing us of being run analytically. Analytics is an important spoke in our wheel but it should be in everybody’s wheel and it really is. It’s an important spoke in every operation that’s having success. There’s not one team that’s not using it. We’re no different.”

Brian Cashman just finished a media session that lasted for over an hour long. He was extremely fiery throughout. More to come.

— Chris Kirschner (@ChrisKirschner) November 7, 2023

Several of MLB’s top teams, the Houston Astros, the Dodgers and the Tampa Bay Rays, to name a few, are heavily reliant on analytics and have massive departments in this area. Cashman said, ideally, the Yankees would add staffing in analytics but, “we always have to make decisions with ownership about where the investments come.” 

Because of Cashman’s strong defense of his analytics department, he was asked why he believes the Yankees receive a higher level of scrutiny relative to their peers. He blamed some of it on bitterness and then took a shot at former Yankees minor leaguer Ben Ruta, who a few months ago ripped the organization online by saying there’s no baseball being taught. Ruta mentioned how the minor league teams would play a game where they’d be awarded points on how hard batters hit the ball, which he felt showed a lack of understanding of what’s important in winning. 

Cashman took exception to Ruta’s criticism and called him “Bitter Boy” because he went from posting a .726 OPS with the Yankees organization in 2019 to .566 in 2021 in the San Diego Padres’ farm system. Ruta did not play professional baseball in 2023 after playing in the Atlantic League in 2022.

“You guys gave him a platform, this organizational player ripping away on what’s wrong with our player development department as he flushed out with us and ended up in another organization,” Cashman said. “He wasn’t even as good there as he was with us. Citing HitFX as our important numbers and saying it doesn’t include strikeouts — he doesn’t even know that it does include strikeouts. But he’s getting a platform and everybody sings about what ails the Yankees, and it’s like, how is this even happening? It’s embarrassing to have stuff like that play out. But, hey, when you’re losing, you guys are going to gravitate to whatever you want to say, ‘See, I got you.'”

What Cashman doesn’t appreciate is how analytics show that the Yankees’ minor league teams’ offenses have had success but he feels like they don’t get the credit they deserve and the media and fans only point out everything that is wrong with the organization. Cashman is right about the minor league offenses succeeding, but it hasn’t translated well to the major league level. Volpe, Oswald Peraza, Everson Pereira and Oswaldo Cabrera all struggled on varying levels in 2023.

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Cashman’s most defiant moment on Tuesday came in a heated back-and-forth with a reporter about why the team has struggled to have its young players perform well immediately on the major league level when other teams, namely the Baltimore Orioles, have had more success with their rookies. He squashed the verbal boxing match by saying whatever he, Steinbrenner or Boone said didn’t matter.

“Whatever we say will be replayed and used as a weaponization if you can find a way to do it,” Cashman said.

Usually, Cashman is much more measured and composed than how he came across Tuesday. It was clear Cashman had built up anger that needed to be released. In his first media session of the offseason, Cashman unloaded the chamber in a way not seen by him in years.

“I think we’re pretty f—ing good, personally, and I’m proud of our people,” Cashman said. “And I’m also looking forward to ’24 being a better year than ’23.”

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(Photo: Matt York / Associated Press)

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