Brian Cashman won’t interview manager candidates until Thursday
General manager Brian Cashman of the New York Yankees speaks to the media prior to a game against the Detroit Tigers at Yankee Stadium on Monday, July 31, 2017 in the Bronx borough of New York City. Credit: Jim McIsaac
ORLANDO, Fla. — Yankees general manager Brian Cashman may make some progress on his winter to-do list during this week’s GM meetings.
Advancing the process of hiring his next manager won’t be one of them.
“It’s suspended until Thursday and we’ll resume on Thursday back in New York,” Cashman said early Sunday night after arriving at the Waldorf Astoria Orlando.
Rob Thomson, one of two candidates to interview so far — Eric Wedge is the other — described a 5-6 hour interview in front of Cashman and others from baseball operations, as well as time with other departments in the organization.
“I have a much larger staff in New York that’s not transporting down here,” Cashman said. “So because of all those circumstances I can’t simulate what I do in New York and have the best type of interview down here. I want to keep it the same playing ground for each candidate.”
Cashman would not say who will interview on Thursday, nor did he lay out any kind of time frame for wanting his next manager in place.
He also declined, prudently, to talk about a player likely to be speculated about throughout these meetings. That would be Shohei Otani, the star outfielder-pitcher from Japan who is likely to be posted this offseason but hasn’t as yet because a new posting system hasn’t been agreed upon. The 23-year-old has signed on with CAA but Cashman said he won’t be meeting with Otani’s representative, Nez Balelo, this week. At least about Otani.
“[Otani’s] not officially in play so following those tampering rules, I would be able to talk to CAA and Nez about players that are legitimate free agents but wouldn’t be allowed to talk to them about player that is under control of another club unless their status changes at some point,” Cashman said.
He did say he’ll probably talk with Kyle Thousand of Roc Nation Sports, CC Sabathia’s representation, sometime during the week.
“I got a text from him saying he would be down here,” Cashman said, “so I’m sure I’ll see him.”
