Brian Cashman Defends Yankees Defense In World Series

The Los Angeles Dodgers won the World Series thanks to clutch hitting from Freddie Freeman, excellent relief pitching, and a dominant start from Yoshinobu Yamamoto. But it wouldn't be unrealistic to say that the New York Yankees lost it. In every sense of the word.

The Yankees made a number of defensive and mental mistakes, costing them runs in multiple games. Even the Dodgers advance scouting knew that New York struggled with making routine plays.

READ: Turns Out, The Dodgers Knew The Yankees Could Collapse In The World Series

But Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman doesn't think the team's defensive issues in the series were part of a repetitive pattern. In his first public comments after the loss, Cashman told reporters at the GM meetings that he thinks the lapses weren't necessarily a systemic issue. 

"The Dodgers won the World Series, and I congratulate them. I wish we gave everyone our best shot. But you only have a small window to do that," said Cashman, per the New York Post. 

"We earned our right to get there, but we didn’t play our best baseball while there, and we got sent home." 

He did say that while top end defense wasn't the team's strength, it's part of the composition of the roster. "I think some of it’s inherent to certain players we have," Cashman said. Though that definitive fifth inning he believes was more of a fluke circumstance than roster construction problem.

"The big fifth inning that people point to, those players are pretty consistently buttoned up," he continued. "Sometimes, when you have consistently good players make mistakes, that exacerbates other circumstances. But obviously, the Game 5 situation was involving players that are really good consistently at what they do, whether it be the Gold Glove shortstop or the typically high-end defender at first or the ace of our mound in Gerrit Cole that’s as great a baseball mind as they come. Or Aaron Judge, [who] catches that fly ball a billion times out of a billion."

NEW YORK - Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees drops a routine fly ball hit by Tommy Edman of the Los Angeles Dodgers during the fifth inning of Game Five of the 2024 World Series at Yankee Stadium on October 30, 2024. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

Does Brian Cashman Have A Point About Yankees Issues?

Cashman does have a point that Aaron Judge is normally reliable in the outfield and Cole would typically cover first. But mistakes were also made by Gleyber Torres, Anthony Rizzo, Jazz Chisholm and Anthony Volpe. A significant portion of the Yankees on-field defense had defensive plays ranging from disastrous to below average. 

That's a problem, and it's a problem of roster construction.

Clearly the front office, and even Yankees fans, prioritized offense over all, hoping to outscore opponents on its way to a championship. Had they matched up against an easier team from the National League, that might have worked. But against a team that rarely makes mistakes, had a lineup that was better and deeper, and was better prepared, the margin for error was razor thin.

And they weren't able to stay on the right side of it.

If the Yankees want to win in 2025, tightening up their defense and execution might be the first thing on the list of offseason priorities.