Yankees GM Brian Cashman did not want to bring Rafael Soriano on board as the team’s set-up man for Mariano Rivera. How do we know that? Maybe because he said it. Nothing says “welcome” like a nice, honest “I didn’t want you here.”
New York had to do something. They watched the arch rival Red Sox overhaul their roster this offseason and invest millions into two of the game’s best young talents. Meanwhile, the Yankees have one proven front-line starter — C.C. Sabathia — to accompany the erratic A.J. Burnett and talented but raw Phil Hughes. They’ve even extended a mind-boggling $10 million offer to Carl Pavano, because that worked so well the first time (he ended up re-signing with the Twins).
So Brian Cashman Hal Steinbrenner went out and signed one of the top relievers on the market in Soriano. According to Hardball Talk, Cashman was very candid about the signing, simply stating that it wasn’t his call.
I didn’t recommend it … I’m charged with obviously winning a championship. I’m charged with building a farm system. I’m charged with getting the payroll down, and this certainly will help us try to win a championship. There’s no doubt about that, so that’s in the plus column, but I didn’t recommend it, just because I didn’t think it was an efficient way to allocate the remaining resources we have, and we had a lot of debate about that … My plan would be patience and waiting. They obviously acted. And we are better, there’s no doubt about it.”
In other words: welcome to the Bronx, Soriano. If I had my way, you wouldn’t be here.
