The middle of the Yankees order didn’t hit for four months and ultimately led to the team trading Aroldis Chapman, Andrew Miller and Carlos Beltran for prospects, which reduced the club’s already slim chance of making the postseason.
What, according to Hal Steinbrenner, the soft bats won’t result in is general manager Brian Cashman and Joe Girardi losing their jobs.
“I think our biggest problem … has obviously been run production, run differential in the middle of the lineup. And I don’t know that there’s anything anybody could’ve done about that,’’ Steinbrenner said Tuesday on ESPN Radio. “Cashman’s done a great job throughout this whole process, so have his people. And Joe has I think done the best he can. We have to focus on what the problem is, and I certainly don’t think it’s either one of them.’’
Cashman and Girardi each has one year remaining on his contract. Trading two of the top three relievers in baseball as well as their best hitter has reduced whatever expectations existed before the deals. That would make it hard to fire Girardi after stripping his roster.
As for Cashman, there are some GMs with a year left who never would have gone near ownership with the idea to use veteran assets to get prospects and look to a future that may not include them.
“We tried to do what was right and the contract length had no bearing on that,’’ Cashman said. “It needed to happen and we tried to make the best decisions possible.’’
Steinbrenner doesn’t look at the moves as surrendering all hope of reaching the postseason despite long odds.
“I don’t see anybody running away with the division, I don’t see anyone running away with the wild card,’’ said Steinbrenner, whose club was 6 ¹/₂ games out of first in the AL East and 5 ½ out of the second AL wild-card spot entering Tuesday.