Yankees fans are chanting for manager Aaron Boone to be fired, because they are mad and because he's the guy making the decisions they can see. They can't vent at owner Hal Steinbrenner or general manager Brian Cashman or the analytics department, and they are generally loath to blame players other than high-priced imports like Giancarlo Stanton. So they boo Boone, and New York talk radio is buzzing with speculation about his future.
But the pertinent question is not really about whether Boone is going to be fired, but whether Steinbrenner believes in Cashman's vision. If Hal were like his father, the hyper-impetuous George Steinbrenner, well, it probably would be a fait accompli -- there would be change.
What Hal Steinbrenner said the other day is correct, however. Not every move that George made was right -- in fact, the majority of them turned out badly. The signings of Catfish Hunter and Reggie Jackson and David Cone worked out well, but George also drove the franchise into the ground in the late '80s, and his chosen replacement for Paul O'Neill was Raul Mondesi, whose "Yankeeography" has apparently been shelved. If the pre-Steinbrenner days are known as the Horace Clarke years, the late '80s could be known as the Ken Phelps era.
Hal Steinbrenner recognizes nuance better than his father, to the degree that you can imagine him sitting at his kitchen table, drawing a line down the middle of a legal pad and writing out pros and cons.
Under the list of possible indictments, this would be first: The 2021 season is shaping up to be the most disappointing since 2004, since they blew that 3-0 lead against the Red Sox in the American League Championship Series. The roster that Cashman put together this year is very right-handed, not particularly athletic and is one of the worst offensive teams in the big leagues.
Under the pros: The Yankees have had elite run production in seasons before this, with a cast of players mostly the same as they're fielding in 2021. From 2017 through 2020, New York ranked first in the majors in runs:
Yankees: 2,967
Astros: 2,892
Red Sox: 2,854
Dodgers: 2,809
The Yankees have piled up runs and the front office and players believe they were the best team in baseball at the end of the 2017 season, when they were eliminated by the Astros in a seven-game AL Championship Series -- the year Houston went next-level with its sign-stealing system.
An indictment: Compared with their West Coast big-money and big-market twin, the Dodgers, the Yankees have been sluggish in their drafting and development. Gleyber Torres had a big season two years ago and plummeted off the star train. Gary Sanchez was really good and then really bad and seems to be bouncing back. The Yankees have failed to build a consistent pipeline of pitching.
A reason to keep Cashman: He has never had a losing season. Ever. Twenty-four seasons as GM and the Yankees have always won -- not as much in the postseason since the 1996-2001 dynasty, but the organization's last losing record was in 1992. Cashman and Hal Steinbrenner basically grew up in the business together, have known each other for decades, and Hal knows about Cashman the same thing that his father knew about Gene Michael: Cashman's decisions are always about what he thinks is best for the franchise. Some of the choices might turn out badly, but there is a simple motivating factor behind them. And if Hal fires Cashman, he would have to find somebody else who could handle the incendiary New York market as deftly as Cashman, who draws raves from his peers for this particular skill.
A possible indictment: Cashman's trust of the analytics may have gone too far. The internal numbers for the Yankees indicate that new Yankee Stadium is not necessarily the heavenly abode that old Yankee Stadium was, and that right-handed hitters actually have the greater advantage. But the fact is that rival managers look at the string of right-handed hitters and see opportunity, and late-inning matchups that are easier to exploit. The Yankees' view of their right-handedness is very different from that of other teams; in big spots, in October, other teams see a flaw to exploit.
Cashman has a year left on his contract and he is one of the highest-paid general managers, making something in the range of $5 million to $6 million annually, and if Steinbrenner were to turn the page and pursue some other GM, he would be paying two GMs.
Steinbrenner is also aware of this reality: If he dismisses Cashman, then some other team would snap him up quickly; he is highly regarded in the industry. Maybe Cashman would choose to wait until after his son finishes high school in this area. Maybe he would do TV for a year, or maybe he would do what some friends want him to do and take some time to catch his breath after working his entire adult life in the pressure cooker that is New York. But whenever he wants to talk, there would be baseball owners that would want to talk with someone who has five championship rings and a long history of success.
The Yankees have to play the Mariners and Astros on the road this week, and then the Red Sox in eight of the first 10 games out of the All-Star break. And by July 26, Hal Steinbrenner should know whether his team should be sellers instead of buyers, and whether he needs to start mulling a decision about making a change at the top of his front office.