Cashman has a lot on his plate

Brian Cashman, usually accessible and accommodating to the media, ended what for him had been a long period of silence Thursday night before Joe Torre's annual dinner.

The general manager, at least publicly, had not spoken with the media since a conference call announcing Joe Girardi's new contract Oct. 29, though he had been plenty busy during the week.

After taking questions for nearly 20 minutes on the red carpet at Chelsea Piers, as Cashman walked away, he said good-naturedly, "Talk to you in three weeks," a reference to the winter meetings Dec. 6-9 in Orlando.

Of course, he will talk to reporters again before that, probably starting Monday night at the GM meetings, also in Orlando.

He'll likely address most, if not all, of the topics he did Thursday, but he probably won't have a great deal more to offer than he did Thursday, which isn't to say Cashman was uninformative.

He made his first comments about Monday's meeting in Tampa with Derek Jeter, although he did not provide many specifics. He gave some details about his conversation informing Jorge Posada he'll likely be the primary DH in 2011. Cashman talked about his mid-week trip to Arkansas to have lunch with the team's top free-agent target, Cliff Lee, and his search for a pitching coach, a priority that will be interrupted by the GM meetings but then will continue with more interviews. Bullpen coach Mike Harkey and A's minor-league coordinator Gil Patterson were interviewed Thursday.

Everything in terms of negotiations with Jeter, Lee and Mariano Rivera, Cashman said, is in the "infancy stages," and that isn't expected to change much this week.

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Lee's agent, Darek Braunecker, told Newsday on Friday that if he attends the GM meetings - he seems likely to do so, although as of Friday morning, he hadn't decided for sure - it would be for "first meetings" with clubs that have expressed an interest in Lee.

Though the Yankees are the favorite to sign Lee - with the Rangers heavily in the mix - other teams, such as the Nationals, also have declared their interest to Braunecker. Cashman doesn't expect Lee to make a decision until the winter meetings at the earliest.

Beside re-signing Rivera and Jeter and signing Lee, Cashman has other desires. He said immediately after the season that he wants to add a lefthanded reliever, and he repeated that this past week. He broke a little news late in the week, saying that even though the Yankees appear organizationally stocked at catcher, he isn't averse to exploring elsewhere. The job will be Jesus Montero's to lose in spring training, with Francisco Cervelli also in the competition. Austin Romine, though a long shot, has rocketed through the system.

"I wouldn't close the door on looking at the marketplace and see if I can secure somebody else out there as a cushion," said Cashman, who added he still told Posada to prepare as if he'll catch. "[There's] the potential that hasn't made it yet and protection just in case it's not going to cross over yet because there's growing pains always involved."

Lee is the top free-agent target, but Cashman has been busy touching base with other agents. The Yankees will at the very least monitor the talks with outfielder Carl Crawford, and there is interest in reliever Joaquin Benoit and lefthanded starter Jorge de la Rosa. He's not a primary target but could become one if things don't work out with Lee.

"There's a number of free agents out there that would interest me," Cashman said. "I would just keep it general. We've made a lot of phone calls and expressed interest in a number of players, and so our names on the board are north, south, east and west and how this winter plays out [will impact] who we end up with, obviously."

With Ken Davidoff