Hal on Cashman: “Let me get to October …. and we’ll go from there”

Via Ken Davidoff: Hal Steinbrenner was non-committal yesterday when asked about retaining Brian Cashman after the season. “We’re so busy right now, trying to figure out who’s going to be playing in any given game, much less that,” said Hal. “We’ll be talking about that soon enough. But you know me. We’ve got enough things to worry about during the season. That’s where our focus needs to be. Let me get to October — hopefully the end of October, beginning of November — and we’ll go from there.”

Cashman’s contract expires after the season and historically the Yankees have let his deals play all the way out before re-signing him. I agree with Davidoff that Hal’s comments were more about the owner having a lot on his plate at the moment — including picking a new commissioner — than a non-endorsement of Cashman. I do think the Yankees need to get serious about changing their team-building strategies because paying premium dollars for (the decline years of) free agents and having a top-heavy roster flat out doesn’t work anymore. They need more from the farm system and have to do a better job of avoiding bad players. No more Brian Robertses or Zelous Wheelers, guys like that. That has to start this offseason or else the franchise will make no progress towards returning to contention.