SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Yankees general manager Brian Cashman agreed that this year’s team “wasn’t the best defensive team we’ve had” and conceded that it made “some baserunning mistakes,” but suggested the bigger issue in the World Series was that they just didn’t play their best.
“The Dodgers won the World Series, and I congratulate them. I wish we gave everyone our best shot. But you only have a small window to do that,” said Cashman, addressing what was their undoing in the five-game Fall Classic defeat for the first time here at the GM meetings.
“We earned our right to get there, but we didn’t play our best baseball while there, and we got sent home,” Cashman said.
The Yankees roster is extremely talented, especially at the top.
But Cashman admitted defense wasn’t a major strength.
“I think some of it’s inherent to certain players we have,” Cashman said.
But he highlighted the irony that the mistakes in the fateful fifth inning of the 7-6 Game 5 loss were made by some of their best defenders — Anthony Volpe, Aaron Judge, Gerrit Cole and Anthony Rizzo.
“The big fifth inning that people point to, those players are pretty consistently buttoned up,” Cashman said. “Sometimes, when you have consistently good players make mistakes, that exacerbates other circumstances.
“The team wasn’t the best defensive team that we’ve had, clearly. And the team also obviously made some baserunning mistakes,” Cashman added.
“But obviously, the Game 5 situation was involving players that are really good consistently at what they do, whether it be the Gold Glove shortstop or the typically high-end defender at first or the ace of our mound in Gerrit Cole that’s as great a baseball mind as they come. Or Aaron Judge, [who] catches that fly ball a billion times out of a billion.”