Every year, the New York Yankees are monitored ever-so closely to examine their off-season moves and negotiations. General manager Brian Cashman might have the smallest amount of secrecy as media members and fans track his every move and phone call. However, that has forced him to develop an interesting strategy on how he negotiates during free agency.
“Whenever decisions get made by players and their representatives, you keep a catalogue of this is what they said, this is what they said they were going to get, this is what they ultimately got,†the GM said. “That information matched up and it was accurate and they’re on the nice list, you can trust them as you move forward because you had 13 negotiations and they were 13-for-13 in their honesty and transparency and they didn’t misrepresent, they didn’t lie or what have you.
Honestly is the key, as Cashman tests the players and their agents to determine the truth and if they’re fair to the club. Cashman wants to corral good/honest players who respect the club enough, to tell the truth about their value and alternative conversations.
“And then you have the naughty list where you get the experience of, that’s not even close to what they said and we ultimately conclude a deal with a player and you keep them you backtrack with other clubs after the fact to find out, ‘Hey, I read in the media you were here, and is that true?’ And they’re like, ‘No, I wasn’t even involved with the guy.’ And its like, well, that’s the naughty list because the agent might have said you were.
New York Yankees’ Brian Cashman is like Santa:
“Then you engage with the clubs after the fact when you do your deep dives and the winter is over and try to crosscheck your information to make sure that you had that true, honest dialogue (and) start to get a feel for who you’ve had relationships you’ve built with and who you’ve got to be a little bit more careful with.â€