General manager Brian Cashman admitted that the Yankees “underperformed” and did not play their “A game” in the World Series against the Dodgers and defended the club against criticism that they were a flawed team in response to comments from the Los Angeles reliever Joe Kelly.
“First and foremost, I recognize that we played poorly in the World Series,” Cashman said Tuesday at the GM Meetings in San Antonio when asked if his team’s poor defense and base running are a difference.
“We saw that and unfortunately our A-game didn’t show up when it counted most,” he continued. “Also, I think, objectively speaking, if you take a step back and analyze who we played, whether it was the Dodgers or any of the other postseason teams that participated, whether we played them or other teams in the National League, those rosters are all built with players who do things in one category better than others.
“You have exceptionally good defensemen who don’t hit very well, you have very good hitters who don’t defend very well. And the combination of how it all fits together plays out in a way over the course of 162 and then through the month of October, if you’re lucky enough to get there.
Kelly had called the Fall Classic a “mismatch” from the start and said the Yankees were the eighth or ninth best team in the postseason.
“Look at the team, look at the talent. We go through countless scouting reports. We pay attention to every detail. We have a lot of big superstars in our clubhouse, but our superstars also care and are not lazy and play hard. That’s the difference and the greatest distinction,” Kelly said on the website Baseball isn’t boring podcast.
The GM added that he disagreed with the premise of the question that the Dodgers “excelled exceptionally in all categories at every position” and that the Yankees were a flawed team.
“They are the world champions and they get all the credit, but at the same time I don’t think this is a fair representation,” he said. “I think it’s fairer to say that we just played poorly and underperformed in that series. I think we underperformed more than anything in that series [the Yankees] were lucky enough to go to the World Series and how did we even get there.
Cashman said they had a “good team” and just “didn’t play our best when it mattered most.”
When asked specifically about Kelly’s comments about the Yankees being an error-prone team, the GM said he heard those comments from the relief pitcher — who did not appear in the series due to injury — and that they seemed personal.
“I know people at the Dodges as well, so I’ve had some internal conversations that I’ve definitely gotten feedback on. I think it’s more representative of certain players than the whole group,” he said. “And in Joe’s case, it feels like it’s a little bit personal, you know, the way he talks the way he has. So it feels like that’s more personal than anything.
“I can’t make much more of it than that. I know he’s talking a lot right now. And yeah, he won, or they won, so I can just say what I just said,” Cashman said with a shrug.
Looking to send the series back to the West Coast, the Yankees held a 5–0 lead in the fifth inning of Game 5, but a series of defensive miscues and sloppy play led to the Dodgers scoring five unearned runs in what would ultimately be the series-deciding game. And that wasn’t the first game the Yanks played sloppy on defense or running the bases.
“They have a bad ball. Yeah, sloppy. Everyone knows that,” Kelly said. “We said every game, ‘Let them throw the ball in the infield, they can’t play.’ You saw Shohei [Ohtani] get an extra base if you go to third base after a sloppy play Gleyber [Torres] play. It is known. We all knew it.”
As for the recent postseason struggles for the Yankees — they won series against AL Central teams but faltered against teams from the other divisions — Cashman said he doesn’t buy into that trend.
“Every year is different,” the general manager said. “I think all those years we had a chance to be in the lead and be the last team standing, otherwise we would go home if we didn’t play our best baseball. This year’s team took us all the way to the championship, last year we didn’t make it, two years ago we got wherever we went. You have to get in and then play your best baseball to make it all the way.
“And to become world champion you have to be very good – and I think we have produced very good teams – you have to be healthy and you have to be lucky. We’ll try to figure out further how to navigate October. We’ve done it before, but as is often the case, the best teams don’t win in many years. And it’s not because they’re flawed, it’s just difficult to navigate through October.”
