Rowland, who will turn 63 next month, had been with the Yankees for 23 seasons in total. Several of the Yankees’ international prospects who received large bonuses failed to advance or maintain starting jobs in the major leagues.
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“His contract had expired,” general manager Brian Cashman said Wednesday during a Zoom news conference. “I made the difficult decision to look for a different lead voice in that chair.”
Cashman did not attend the CEO meetings in Las Vegas and spoke to reporters remotely.
After losing to Toronto in an American League Division Series, the Yankees’ top priority is re-signing free agent outfielder/infielder Cody Bellinger.
“It’s pretty early in the process, but I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Of course, we’d like to have him back,” Cashman said.
Obtained from the Chicago Cubs last offseason, Bellinger, 30, hit .272 with 29 home runs and 98 RBIs.
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“Among all the free agent outfielders, he was the best player in the class,” his agent, Scott Boras, said at the general manager meetings. “Defensively he was certainly a versatile outfield viper, playing both first base and all three outfield positions. And offensively he was a Merlin in the middle of the lineup.”
New York made qualifying offers of $22,025,000 to Bellinger, who is certain to reject it, and outfielder Trent Grisham.
“We would be happy if he accepted and came back,” Cashman said of Grisham.
New York has not decided whether to offer a long-term contract to All-Star second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr., who can become a free agent after the 2026 season. The Yankees exited free agency in 2019 by giving a seven-year, $70 million contract to outfielder Aaron Hicks and a four-year, $40 million contract to pitcher Luis Severino, both of whom underperformed.
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Cashman said he spoke with Chisholm’s agent, Brodie Van Wagenen, on Wednesday.
“I’m not sure how that will play out,” Cashman said. “Do you make a decision now or wait? You’ve seen our past, how it developed to a certain extent.”
Cashman said outfield prospect Spencer Jones, a power hitter and strikeout prone, has been working out at Yankee Stadium and could have a role in the major leagues next year. George Lombard Jr., a 20-year-old infielder, seems less likely.
“I don’t think the 26th is on the horizon, but I wouldn’t rule it out at some point in the 26th at the same time,” Cashman said.
He also reacted to comments from manager Aaron Boone, who said on a “Talkin’ Yankees” podcast on Nov. 4 “if you look at the American League East, like the way I, for example, coach a game, I’m not even saying it’s good or bad, but we’re probably the least analytical team in the game that there is and I’m sure of that.”
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“I just think he’s trying to get fans into the dugout with constant comments about ‘the front office is pulling the strings and every move seems to be the analytics department telling them what to do and everything is pre-arranged.’ None of that is true,” Cashman said. “That was his response to the question of constantly being challenged and accused of being a puppet and running a show that’s not designed by him… He’s definitely going to make decisions that our analytics department wouldn’t agree with, but they’re not managing the team. And sometimes they work for our benefit and sometimes they don’t.”
Cashman defended New York’s home run-dependent lineup construction in a year when Toronto won the American League East and went to Game 7 of the World Series led by contact hitters. The Yankees led the major leagues with 274 home runs and scored 50.2% of their runs on long balls, the most runs in the Major Leagues, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
“The team that beats the other team in the postseason series usually wins 90% of the time,” Cashman said. “So home runs are a good thing, not a bad thing, but strikeouts are a bad thing. Putting the ball in play is a good thing because a lot of things can happen, but you don’t want to put the ball in play with double plays. So strikeouts are bad, double plays are bad. Everything else is obviously good.”
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb