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The thing about a drought — a gap, a dry spell, one blank space after another in a history shaped by the few that existed prior — is that it’s never just about one season. It’s never just about 162 games, about just one or three or five or seven in a postseason series. One blip stacks on top of another until it’s a trend, and one trend drags out until it’s the modern trajectory of a franchise.
That’s why, for the better part of the 15 years since the Yankees’ last World Series appearance in 2009, Brian Cashman spent most of his time defending. The franchise’s general manager doubled as its Vezina Trophy-winning, Gold Glove defense attorney when it came to criticism.
There was the “pretty f–king good” rant at the general managers’ meetings last November. The sharp defense of an analytics department that was allegedly outdated and the “smallest” in baseball. The winding path in free agency two years ago that led the Yankees to Isiah Kiner-Falefa instead of Trevor Story or Carlos Correa. The support of Aaron Boone that hasn’t waned since Cashman hired him as the Yankees’ manager following the 2017 season — and that likely will be renewed at some point after the season ends, when he either needs to activate the club option on Boone’s contact, negotiate another one or, in what would be a shocking outcome, part ways with him.
And then there was Tuesday, during a segment on MLB Network when Cashman was asked about the Yankees ending their drought and returning to the World Series, where they’ll face the Dodgers in Game 1 on Friday in Los Angeles. Cashman, who has won four titles since taking over his current position with the Yankees in 1998, launched his latest defense, his pitch for why the drought, really, should have an asterisk next to it.