They are not Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, nor Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra or Reggie Jackson and Thurman Munson. They are not in the class of Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Bernie Williams, Andy Pettitte and Jorge Posada. But they have caught my attention nonetheless, and the infusion of new players on the New York Yankees roster has prompted what some might see as a strange thought.
The Yankees and their fans owe former commissioner Fay Vincent a debt of gratitude. They castigated Vincent when he threw George Steinbrenner out of baseball in 1990, but 30 years later it has turned out to be the best thing that happened to the organization.
With Steinbrenner removed from the daily operation of the Yankees, General Manager Gene Michael was free to run the team as he saw fit, and he dramatically changed the culture of the organization. I’m not naïve enough to think Steinbrenner didn’t communicate with Michael during his suspension. In fact, I recall being told that Michael kept a little black book with dates and subjects of their conversations.
I also recall telling Michael jokingly if he wanted to prolong Steinbrenner’s absence all he had to do was give the commissioner the little black book. He didn’t see the humor in that idea. In fact, the former shortstop took his job most seriously.
The most significant development Michael introduced was the retention of promising young players, refusing to trade them for expensive veterans, as Steinbrenner had. Michael was also a proponent of the on-base statistic before it became popular among users of analytics.
Michael, who suffered a fatal heart attack in 2017, could have continued his role as general manager but opted instead for an advisory role. Steinbrenner never held it against him that he changed the culture the owner created. It worked, and Steinbrenner was smart enough to see that it was good.
Michael, meanwhile, was smart enough to see who was good, and he liked what he saw in Tim Naehring, like himself a former major league infielder, though he spent his playing career (1990-97) in the Boston Red Sox organization. Naehring, 52, joined the Yankees’ organization as a scout in 2007 and is in his fourth season as vice president of baseball operations.
“Tim Naehring is one of our top scouts,” Michael said in one of our 2017 conversations, our last before he died. “He’s very influential with Brian. He should be because I think he’s good.”
General Manager Brian Cashman needs people like Michael and Naehring because he has no background as a talent evaluator. Naehring has also been instrumental in filling the Yankees’ minor league system with talented young players who are ready for prime time.
It didn’t take the Yankees long this season to need those players. In the first month they had more than a dozen players take up residence on the injured list.
In the Steinbrenner years, the Yankees would automatically have scoured the waiver wire and looked at the other teams’ rosters to see where they could find a replacement for their injured player. This season, though, the Yankees haven’t done any of that, and they’ve had plenty of opportunities and needs. They looked not outward but inward.
They needed an outfielder? How about Clint Frazier or Mike Tauchman? An infielder? OK, try Gio Urshela or Thairo Estrada. A first baseman/designated hitter? That’s obvious—Luke Voit. There’s also Mike Ford, a Princeton University product.
And if the Yankees need a versatile fill-in, they can call on Tyler Wade to play an infield or outfield position.
The class of the injury substitutes, though, is an all-around infielder, D.J. LeMahieu. Signed as a free agent in January, LeMahieu hits well enough to be an every-day starter. As a 30-year-old infielder, he can no longer be considered a young prospect, but he entered the season with a .298 career batting average and was hitting .317 this season entering Sunday’s game.
The starting lineup has also recently included right fielder Cameron Maybin, whom the Yankees bought from Cleveland April 25.
These were the starting lineups for the first two games of the weekend seres with Minnesota:
Gardner-Voit-Sanchez-Torres-Ford-Urshela-Tauchman-Maybin-Wade
LeMahieu-Voit-Sanchez-Andujar-Torres-Gardner-Maybin-Romine-Tauchman
“When there’s an injury, it’s the next man up,” Naehring said in a telephone interview Friday. Acknowledging that change has occurred, he added, “What maybe has changed is if you’re good enough to play in a Yankee uniform and you’re coming up through our system, you’re going to get a chance to play in New York. I think often times in the past minor league players thought they were auditioning for someone else because they felt they were never going to get a chance to play for the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. That culture is gone now. Guys see players going to New York and getting an opportunity and that’s a very, very good thing that Brian’s been able to establish.”
The primary benefit to the Yankees’ way of doing business is business itself. By resisting the temptation to acquire established players to replace injured players, the Yankees spend considerably less money than they spent under the Steinbrenner system.
The reduced expenditure helps keep them below the luxury tax threshold, which saves them millions. On the other hand, it doesn’t necessarily lead to post-season appearances and possible World Series titles.
“The ring has eluded us since 2009,” Naehring said, “but we keep working at it.”