NASHVILLE, Tenn. — In describing the Yankees’ offseason so far, Brian Cashman invoked the names of his hitting coach and his pitching coach.
“I think Alan Cockrell [hitting] is loving me and I think Larry Rothschild’s [pitching] not liking me,” Cashman said Thursday morning as the winter meetings wrapped up with the Rule 5 Draft. “Alan’s got a nice Christmas card probably and I’m getting coal from Larry right now, so I’ve got some things to continue to work through . . . pitching’s obviously an area of need.”
Cashman, though prioritizing pitching when the offseason began, has executed three major moves to this point of the offseason, two resulting in the acquisition of position players and two weakening, for the moment, the major-league pitching staff.