DALLAS — Brian Cashman is open-minded because he needs to be.
The general manager will have to put together the rest of the roster now that Plan A is gone, but Plan B could have been gone as well.
Not only did the Yankees lose Juan Soto, but waiting for Soto cost them other opportunities.
On Nov. 30, the Yankees hosted a Zoom call with Blake Snell, who may have been the best pitcher on the market.
Snell's agent, Scott Boras, warned the Yankees that day that a deal with the Dodgers was in the works.
Did they want to make an offer that would make him suffer in pinstripes?
“We can't make an offer until we first know what's going on with Soto,” Cashman told Boras.
Without knowing whether Soto would accept those hundreds of millions of dollars (the final offer was $760 million), they couldn't spend that much money elsewhere.
Snell signed with the reigning champion for $182 million.
The Yankees kept waiting.
On Saturday, the Giants signed Willie Adams (arguably the best free agent position player not named Soto) to a seven-year, $182 million contract.
“He made the decision earlier. [the Soto decision] It happened,” Cashman said at Monday’s winter meetings. “So if he is playing, we will be discussing the possibility with his agent and other players as well.”
The Yankees currently have many needs in a watered-down free agent market, and likely have plenty of money to spend.
Cashman expects the club to be more aggressive with both free agency and trade targets heading into the winter, when Steinbrenner's money will be distributed among many good to very good players rather than one superstar. I admitted that it was.
“Usually you have to step out of your comfort zone [in free agency]'' Cashman said. “But at the same time, we don't want to be drunk sailors. We want to do everything we can to grow the team.”
There is a lot of room for improvement for clubs without a first baseman and either second or third baseman, depending on Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s position.
On the turf, Cashman admitted he wants Aaron Judge to move to right field.
Jason Dominguez could be the centerpiece, unless a more attractive target is found, perhaps on the trade market.
Left-handed hitter Trent Grisham is still active, and Cashman said he could find a right-handed outside hitter to partner with Grisham.
The Yankees have had meetings with two of the best remaining arms on the market in Corbin Burnes and Max Fried, and another ace could come in handy at any time.
The bullpen could also help a group that lost Clay Holmes and Tommy Kahnle.
“We have to address some areas in the pen, obviously there are vacancies there,” Cashman said. “So we're going to add pitchers, we're going to add pitchers, we're going to improve our defense. Obviously, we just lost a big offensive force, but we certainly have some talented, quality, impact players as well.
“So how do we add to that? Is it anti-runaway? Is it rank creation? Is it a little bit of both? How it all adds up is still to be determined.”
