Brian Cashman May Be the Smartest Man in Baseball

Brian Cashman may be the smartest man in major league baseball.

Reportedly the Yankees have just signed CC Sabathia, who, all experts agree, is the best pitcher in the game right now.

Last year, Cashman passed on Johan Santana in a trade that would have cost the Yankees several of their brightest prospects.

Passing on Santana may have cost them a spot in the playoffs in 2008, but Santana was not overwhelming for the Mets last year.

Sabathia, on the other hand, was hands down the best pitcher in baseball after he was traded by Cleveland to the Milwaukee Brewers. He went 11-2 after the trade and pitched gritty, determined baseball.

Cashman gave up nothing but dollars to sign CC.

And he still has plenty left in the checking account, or maybe it is a MasterCard account, judging by the picture above, to sign several more free agents.

Cashman was roundly criticized recently for failing to offer arbitration to free agent pitcher Andy Pettitte and right fielder Bobby Abreu. 

But arbitration has been a one way street for players who almost always get more at arbitration than they were paid the previous year. 

Pettitte is not worth the $16 million he was paid by the Yanks last year, when he went 14-14 and had some sore arm issues late in the season.

And the Yankees are reported to be in play for A.J. Burnett, Derek Lowe, and Ben Sheets, all starting pitchers who have a higher upside than Pettitte and will not cost $16 Mil per.

The Yankees also paid Abreu $16 Mil last year. He will not approach that number this offseason as a free agent, because there are too many corner outfielders who can put up numbers such as Abreu did in '08.

Manny Ramirez and Raul Ibanez head the list of free agent outfielders who are looking for new homes or a return to familiar grounds for more money.

But add the names of free agents Bobby Abreu, Garrett Anderson, Pat Burrell, Adam Dunn, and Milton Bradley, and you have more corner outfielders who are either sluggers or producers than teams looking for one.

There are also a slew of outfielders that their present teams want to trade: Moises Alou, Emil Brown, Cliff Floyd, Luiz Gonzalez, Eric Hinske, Gabe Kaplar, Jason Michael, Trot Nixon, Greg Norton and Juan Rivera head this list.

The law of supply and demand requires that when you have more product than the market can accept, prices have to go down. 

The winter meetings in Las Vegas are full of reports of agents who sadly have to go back and tell their clients that no team is going to sign them to a long-term contract for the kind of money that was tossed around last year.

Frankie Rodriguez is the prime example. His agent made it very clear that his market price three months ago was $75 million for five years. Yesterday, he signed for $37 Mil for three seasons.

Cashman has kept most of his best prospects. He has let old free agents leave and refused to offer arbitration to players whose value in the new market is way down.

By doing so he may be able to bring Pettitte back to fill the fifth or sixth slot in the Yankees starting rotation at about $10 million for one season.

Or he may let Pettitte go to Hollywood and replace him with A.J. Burnett or Derek Lowe for less money than Pettitte is demanding.

Cashman may sign Abreu for one or two years at about $12 Mil per. But he could also let Bobby go to Chicago and bring in Ibanez for less money.

Or Milton Bradley. Or Garrett Anderson. Or Adam Dunn.

And he can do so while saving some money for a possible run at Mark Teixeira. The Yankees desperately need another really big bat and getting Teixeira would do several things.

It would make the Yankees younger. It would make them steadier. It would make them prodigious in slugging and run production. 

Teaming Tex with A-Rod, Jeter, Nady, and a renewed Cano is almost certain to increase the number of runs they score for a pitching staff that is already better.

The point is, Cashman has apparently realized that with the exception of the rare player like Sabathia and Teixeira, the market has changed.

And Cashman has changed with it. We will wait and see, but he may be the smartest man in baseball. And it never hurts to have the MasterCard.