Yankees hire Omar Minaya as latest Brian Cashman lieutenant

After competing against each other for years in front offices from opposite sides of the RFK Bridge, Brian Cashman and Omar Minaya are now on the same team.

The Yankees named Minaya, the former Mets general manager, as a senior adviser of baseball operations on Thursday, adding yet another veteran mind to their front office after bringing on former Giants general manager Brian Sabean as an executive adviser to Cashman earlier this week.

Minaya, who also previously served as GM of the Expos, was GM of the Mets from 2004-2010 and later returned to the franchise in 2017 as a special assistant to then-GM Sandy Alderson. The 64-year-old, who spent last season working for MLB as an amateur scouting consultant, was responsible for drafting Jacob deGrom and collecting a strong base of homegrown talent — many of whom helped the team reach the World Series in 2015 — during his tenure in Queens.

“When it’s all said and done, this is a successful organization,” Minaya said Thursday on a Zoom call. “But the goal every year is to win the World Series. I’m looking forward to doing whatever Brian and the staff wants from me.”

In three days, Cashman, who signed a four-year deal to remain in his role last month, has further bolstered his baseball operations group with two respected voices. Like Sabean, Minaya is known for his scouting and development chops, which could help balance out a Yankees front office that some believe has leaned more toward the analytical side in recent years.

“We all agree that the game has changed,” said Minaya, a self-described “outside-the-box” thinker who will report to Cashman. “We all have to be open to new information. But when the decision is done, when you’re talking about team building and organizational building, balance is better. I take a lot of pride in learning new ideas and working with people that have new ideas of the game. I’m a big believer in the human element. I’m a big believer that the human element counts. But any time you make a decision, it’s gotta be a balanced decision.”

The Yankees now have a combined 66 years of head of baseball operations experience in their front office among Minaya, Sabean, Cashman and Jim Hendry, the former Cubs GM who serves as a special assistant to Cashman.

While the headline moves of the Yankees’ offseason have been locking up Aaron Judge and signing Carlos Rodon, Cashman said the additions on his own staff had more to do with an opportunity to get better instead of the team’s balance being off-kilter.

“My superpower is I’ve hired really well and surrounded myself with people that are experts in a lot of different areas,” Cashman said Thursday. “We had access to really good baseball people that have extensive scouting backgrounds with a lot of success. To incorporate them in the group I already have, trying to be best in class in all categories.”

Cashman had twice previously attempted to add Minaya to his front office — once when Minaya was working with the MLB Players Association and again last March, shortly after Minaya had joined MLB to work on the draft combine and an international draft, which has since been tabled. Minaya wanted to see those initiatives through at the time, but less than a year later, he was ready to join the Yankees’ brain trust.

“We’ve been around long enough to know that we don’t know it all,” Minaya said of working alongside Sabean and Hendry. “And we’ve been around long enough to know that we just want to be able to help.”

Reliever Junior Fernandez, whom the Yankees designated for assignment on Dec. 21, was claimed off waivers by the Blue Jays.

— Additional reporting by Dan Martin