The Yankees Need to Clean House

The Yankees do not need another reminder that they can spend money. They need a better plan for how to build and run a team. Tampa Bay ranked among the top three in batting average and Defensive Runs Saved, while Milwaukee led the league in batting average. Those clubs show what the Yankees keep ignoring: winning takes more than power and payroll. Great hitters are disciplined. Great teams make contact, defend and execute.

Aaron Judge alluding to the idea that the Yankees need to spend more is out of touch. This is already one of baseball’s richest organizations, with a top-three payroll. The issue is not a shortage of money. It is a front office that makes small, “cute” moves, talks about saving money and expects fans to believe the next prospect or bargain will fix a roster that was not built to win consistently.

Championships are not a crapshoot. They are shaped in the offseason and at the trade deadline, tested in spring training, and won or lost through the grind of the regular season. The Yankees have failed to build a complete roster, develop a consistent identity and respond when the season turns difficult. The annual June swoon has become part of the script. This organization needs a new standard: hunger, preparation, accountability and a commitment to winning a championship, not just reaching October and hoping.

The Front Office: Start with Brian Cashman

Randy Levine should go, too. He is the Yankees’ team president, and the organization needs a broader leadership reset. But the most urgent baseball decision is Brian Cashman, whose approach has shaped this roster for decades.

Brian Cashman has had more than enough time to prove that his approach works. The results say it has not worked well enough. He has run the Yankees’ baseball operation for decades, and the franchise has not won a championship since 2009. A team with the Yankees’ resources should not be asking fans to celebrate another playoff appearance as proof that the plan is sound.

Cashman’s biggest weakness is not that every move fails. No general manager gets every decision right. It is that the same approach keeps producing the same roster problems. The Yankees lean too heavily on power, tolerate too many strikeouts, and too often treat defense and contact as secondary. Then Cashman makes another clever transaction and asks the roster to overcome the flaws he has not fixed.

The prospect obsession is part of that pattern. Prospects are valuable, but potential is not production, and most prospects do not become stars. Miguel Andújar, Clint Frazier and Greg Bird were once presented as important pieces of the future. Cashman also held onto prospects when he had opportunities to pursue established stars. The Yankees reportedly declined to build a Gerrit Cole trade package around Andújar and Frazier, and Cashman passed on the kind of prospect-heavy deal that brought Chris Sale to Boston. Instead of turning some of that potential into proven star talent, the Yankees kept waiting for the prospects to become stars themselves.

Andújar, Frazier and Bird never became the sustained, franchise-changing players the Yankees seemed to expect. Jasson Domínguez is still developing, so his story is not finished. But the larger point stands: Cashman has repeatedly valued the possibility of a prospect becoming a star over the chance to acquire a star who had already proven himself. The organization cannot keep selling tomorrow as an excuse for failing to improve today.

The same caution has cost the Yankees in free agency. Bryce Harper grew up a Yankees fan, yet the club did not even bring him in for a meeting. At some point, the front office has to answer for the opportunities it passed up and the players it failed to acquire. How long does Cashman get to point to the next plan before ownership admits that this plan has run its course?

My recommendation is Theo Epstein as president of baseball operations and Derek Jeter as general manager. Epstein has built championship teams in Boston and Chicago and has said he would consider returning to baseball for the right situation. The Yankees should give him the authority to remake the baseball operation and a clear mandate: build a team capable of winning a championship, not merely one that can contend on paper.

Jeter would bring front-office experience from Miami, a deep understanding of the Yankees’ expectations and a playing career built on contact, defense and execution. He should work under Epstein, learn the demands of the role and eventually be prepared to take over as president of baseball operations. This is not a proposal to hire familiar names for the headlines. It is a proposal to pair an experienced organizational builder with someone who knows what the Yankees are supposed to be.

Keep Matt Blake. Replace the Rest of the Staff.

Matt Blake should stay, and the Yankees should pay him like one of the best pitching coaches in baseball. He has earned that confidence. The hitting and defensive staffs, however, need new leadership and a clearer purpose.

The Yankees’ offensive profile has been too dependent on power and too comfortable with strikeouts. Their .235 batting average ranked 26th in baseball, while their 24.7 percent strikeout rate ranked 27th, the fourth-highest in the league. They struck out 1,480 times, sixth-most in baseball. Those are not small flaws. They describe an offense that too often lets pitchers dictate the at-bat.

Tampa Bay is a useful model because the Rays ranked among the top three in both batting average and Defensive Runs Saved. Milwaukee offers a lesson in offensive discipline: the Brewers led the league in batting average and built an attack around controlling at-bats, putting the ball in play and applying pressure. The Yankees do not need to abandon power. They need to stop acting as if power is the whole plan.

For hitting coach, I would investigate assistants from those organizations. Ozzie Timmons is an intriguing possibility: he is an assistant hitting coach with Tampa Bay and previously coached Milwaukee’s hitters. Milwaukee’s staff also includes Guillermo Martínez and Daniel Vogelbach as assistant hitting coaches. These are names to explore, not claims that they are available. The next hitting coach must teach strike-zone judgment, contact and adjustments, not just encourage players to swing harder.

The defense needs the same level of attention. The Yankees finished with 96 errors and a .983 fielding percentage. Their plus-26 Defensive Runs Saved ranked 13th, while their minus-5 Outs Above Average ranked 17th. Those mixed results are not a reason to declare the defense good enough. In the postseason, four errors in one ALDS game showed how quickly careless defense can change a series.

My first call would be Ron Washington. Pay whatever you can to get him. He is currently with the Giants, so the Yankees would have to make a serious effort to bring him in. Washington is the kind of teacher this team needs: someone who can make footwork, positioning, communication and preparation part of the daily routine. I would also pursue a defensive-minded coach from an organization that consistently develops sound team defense.

The Yankees need a coach who sets the expectation and has the authority to enforce it. Great defenders are not simply born that way. They are made through instruction, repetition and accountability. Defense cannot be treated as a spring-training project or something players worry about only after a mistake.

Aaron Boone: Thank Him, Then Move On

Aaron Boone has been a good clubhouse presence. He stands up for his players and supports them publicly. Those qualities matter, but they do not outweigh the need for a manager whose message still moves the team. Boone has soured with the fans, and the club does not appear to respond to him as it once did. It is time to tell him good night.

The postseason decisions made that case harder to ignore. In an elimination game, Boone put Trent Grisham at the top of the lineup, giving Ben Rice fewer chances to bat. After the Yankees managed one hit against Tampa Bay, Boone used the same lineup the next night. Managers will make mistakes; the problem is when the response looks like there was no adjustment at all. In New York, the expectation is not perfection. It is recognition, adaptation and decisive leadership.

Hal Steinbrenner could offer Boone a special-advisor role and honor what he has meant to the organization. But the next manager must be more than likable. The Yankees need a disciplinarian who demands excellence every day, enforces accountability and makes preparation nonnegotiable.

Don Mattingly would have been a perfect choice, but he is not available. If the Yankees want an old-school leader, Bruce Bochy and Willie Randolph are worth considering. Alex Cora has also been rumored as a potential candidate. Whoever gets the job must set a demanding standard and press the right buttons. It is unrealistic to expect every decision to be right. It is reasonable to expect a manager who sees when a plan is failing and has the conviction to change it.

Boone should not have to choose between offense and defense. That is also on the front office. Cashman has repeatedly left the manager with a roster that forces compromises, when the Yankees should be acquiring players who can contribute on both sides of the ball. Improve the roster, raise the defensive standard and give the next manager players who can execute the plan.

The Yankees need a clean break from a culture that treats October as the finish line. Keep Matt Blake. Replace the leadership that has settled for less. Build a team that hits with discipline, defends with purpose and expects to win a championship.

Yankees fans are on life support, and the only cure is to clean house. An article breaking down the moves the Yankees should make is coming soon.