HAL'S SEARCH FOR YANKEE MANAGER CONTINUES

Kathy Willens/AP Photo

The first weekend without baseball.....and it sucks. I am ready for some hot stove and moves to be made so feel free to announce Brian Cashman's new contract anytime now. Then maybe we can finally get this new Yankee manager signed too and get the 2018 Yankee team in motion. The sooner these things happen the faster baseball officially comes back....right?

Photo: Gabe Kapler / Getty Images

Well, it's wishful thinking anyway. The field of Yankee managerial candidates dropped by a few in the past week:

• The guy I thought was one of the top favorites for the gig, Joe Espada has a new job as third base and bench coach for the World Champion Houston Astros.

• Former LA Dodgers director of player development, Gabe Kapler is now the new manager for the Philadephia Phillies

• Another former bench coach and World Series Champion, Dave Martinez says Goodbye to the Chicago Cubs and heads to Washington as the new Nationals manager.

So who is still in the running? Well, new rumors are swirling after a veteran major league scout talked to NJ.com and said he thinks that Brad Ausmus is going to be Cashman's next choice despite all of the predictions of some saying the Yankees will hire a young, analytical guy that Cashman has close connections to.

This scout believes the Yankees will hire a guy with major league experience with another team and has "thick skin." Sounds like this scout likes a guy that can coddle and kick a guy in the pants if needed....and he thinks Ausmus is that guy.

On paper, Ausmus may not look like the ideal candidate to replace Joe Girardi. After all, Girardi had a 910-710 record as Yankees manager and won a pennant and won a World series title. Ausmus on the other hand managed the Detroit Tigers from 2014-2017 posting a 314-322 record and 2015 and 2017 he finished with losing seasons. How could that possibly translate to a good candidate to replace Girardi?

Honestly, I think Ausmus wasn't set up for success in Detroit and Peter Gammons agrees, you can read that HERE. Ausmus had an aging roster that was inconsistent and a subpar farm system. He simply didn't have the right team to work with yet he was expected to win. Dave Dombrowski should share some of the brunt of the failures here. He was in charge of giving Ausmus the tools to help him win and he simply didn't do it. Gammon's quote of  "Dombrowski has long viewed his role not as trades and acquisitions, but organizational-building" is an eye-opening account of what he and perhaps other outsiders perceive what his role was in the Tigers organization. I don't care how much organizational-building" you do....if you don't have the right people you aren't growing at all. The GM did not give his manager the tools he needed to do his job which is especially hard to ignore when Ausmus had no previous managerial experience.

Photo: NJ.com

I don't foresee that happening in New York. Cashman has been very clear on his expectations and how he plans to accomplish them and he has followed through on them. He has a very different approach and maybe Ausmus is the guy for the job. One MLB scout thinks so and Ausmus is certainly trending in the news so maybe the Yankees are interested?

Who knows if there is any truth to Ausmus and his connection to the Yankees but as the pool of candidates get smaller the rumors become harder to ignore.

Would you want to hire Ausmus and give him a chance here? Tell us why or why not.



--Jeana Bellezza

BYB Managing Editor 
Follow me on Twitter: @NYPrincessJ