For too many years, Brian Cashman was the general manager of the New York Yankees in title only.
The media and masses saw him as a puppet, a man simply with the code to the safe, who merely carried the cash from the Steinbrenner stash to the next big free agent. It was a job anyone could perform, and required far less scouting than accounting.
Go fetch Mussina. And Giambi. And Matsui. Just jot a number on a napkin, slide it across the bar, and the player and agent nod, smile, and sign. Deserved or not, Cashman became the yes man of the Evil Empire, a business model that spent loads of money but didn’t yield the results that were commensurate to the criticism or the envy.