Yankees GM Brian Cashman fires back at comments made by Astros owner Jim Crane
New York Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman speaks to the media prior to the start of the game against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium on April 08, 2022. Credit: Getty Images/Mike Stobe
CHICAGO – Brian Cashman doesn’t want to hear it. Not from Astros owner Jim Crane or anyone, really, from the Houston franchise when it comes to sign-stealing.
“I don't think anybody's gonna dance to the tune he's singing, to be quite honest,” Cashman said Thursday before the Yankees started a four-game series against the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field. “I'd say it's called deflection and him trying to equate probably … a parking ticket to maybe 162 felonies.”
Crane, in recently responding to some comments Cashman made this spring regarding the Houston sign-stealing scandal and its impact on the Yankees not getting to a World Series since 2009 – “The only thing that derailed us was a cheating circumstance that threw us off,” Cashman told The Athletic, comments, it should be pointed out, that didn’t play well anywhere – made a somewhat bizarre comparison.
Crane, in commenting to USA Today said he found Cashman’s remarks to be “extremely strange.”
“There’s the letter, and you were doing it, too,” Crane told the newspaper. “You were there, dude. What are you talking about?”
The letter, of course, refers to one MLB commissioner Rob Manfred sent Cashman regarding a 2017 investigation his office launched in response to a Yankees’ complaint that the Red Sox were illegally using Apple Watches to pass along signs. The Red Sox made a counterclaim against the Yankees accusing them of using their YES Network cameras to steal signs.
In the letter to Cashman – which Yankees president Randy Levine fought tooth and nail to keep from becoming public – Manfred said the league’s investigation cleared the Yankees from the YES Network charges but stated the organization was found to have illegally used their video replay room to try and steal signs and then relay them to the dugout. The Yankees were fined $100,000 for the infraction, as well as the “improper” use of a dugout phone.
Those transgressions were deemed to have occurred during parts of the 2015 and ’16 seasons. In releasing those findings – the Red Sox were also disciplined – Manfred essentially issued a zero-tolerance policy for future violations when it came to sign-stealing.
Along came the Astros, who were found to have engaged in a massive sign-stealing operation, which included the banging of a trash (during home games) can to transfer signs, during their World Series title winning campaign in 2017 and into the 2018 season as well.
Cashman said: "The reason I kind of equated it to a parking ticket (vs.) a felony is, as you recall, they lost multiple years of first-round draft picks, they were fined millions of dollars and decided to fire their manager and general manager because of their actions. There’s no equivalent to any of it. So that’s why I said it’s a deflection. No one’s buying it. No one’s singing to that dance tune. It is what it is. But I applaud him for trying.”
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
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