Yanks GM could be in Phils' future

[Lil Bit Special]

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/sports/20080504_On_Baseball__Yanks_GM_could_be_in_Phils__future.html

The New York Yankees are having problems, and they could resonate all the way to Philadelphia.

The Yankees entered May in fourth place in the American League East. They are banged up, and their starting pitching (5.25 ERA entering Friday) has been poor.

There's not much the Yanks could have done to prevent injuries to Alex Rodriguez, Jorge Posada and Phil Hughes. Injuries happen. No one can tell when an athlete will go down.

There was something the Yankees could have done about their starting pitching, however. Johan Santana, arguably the best starter in the game, was available last fall and winter, and the Yankees, along with the Red Sox and Mets, were very interested in acquiring him from the Minnesota Twins.

For much of the off-season, the Yanks were considered the frontrunner to get Santana. They had the young players needed to get him. They had the money to give him the huge contract extension he required to waive his no-trade clause. They also had a senior vice president, Hank Steinbrenner, son of semi-retired owner George Steinbrenner, who wanted Santana.

In the end, Santana went to the cross-town Mets, largely because Yanks GM Brian Cashman convinced Hank Steinbrenner that the organization needed to protect young pitching resources such as Hughes, the righthander who went on the disabled list with a cracked rib and a bloated ERA Thursday.

Cashman's commitment to youth was sound baseball thinking. Hey, sometimes in this game you need to take a step back to take several forward.

But in the Bronx, after 13 straight trips to the playoffs and with tickets and cable TV subscriptions to sell, taking steps backward is not always permitted. Cashman's commitment to young starting pitching has not gone well so far. Hughes and Ian Kennedy have combined to go 0-6 with an 8.78 ERA in 11 starts.

This is not to say that Hughes and Kennedy aren't good pitching prospects and won't someday be big winners. They just don't appear to be ready for prime time yet, no sin when they are just 21 and 23, respectively.

Bringing young pitching along in the majors requires patience. The Yanks are now forced to be patient with Hughes as he will be on the disabled list until July. Kennedy could be headed for triple A with one more poor start.

The word patience and the name Steinbrenner have never fit well in the same sentence. This could prove to be a problem for Cashman - maybe even a good one if, after all these years, he's had enough of the mania of the Bronx. If the Yanks miss the playoffs, Cashman's decision to back off on Santana and go young will surely agitate Hank Steinbrenner, who has already made rumblings to that effect. Cashman is in the final year of his contract and missing the playoffs could surely result in a change of GMs.

That would make Cashman a free agent.

And that would put him in play in Philadelphia, where there will be a job opening when Pat Gillick retires in the fall.

Cashman was between contracts when Gillick got the job in the fall of 2005. The Yankees GM was thinking about where he might end up if he was not renewed, and the Phillies job appealed to him. He admitted that in this space in 2005.

Phillies president Dave Montgomery is a loyal man, and we fully expect him to stay in-house for his next GM, either by hiring Ruben Amaro Jr. or Mike Arbuckle. The only way we see him straying from this path is if things completely unravel with the Phillies this season and he has to change the faces for PR reasons.

The Phils entered May in first place in the National League East. If they stay in contention, make a run at the playoffs and sell lots of tickets, the next GM will likely come from in-house. But if things go haywire here, and the Yankees continue to struggle, keep an eye on Cashman.