The Yankees’ analytics guys — they sublease their place from Dave Gettleman’s since-disbanded computer folks — are not going anywhere. Even after the Bombers added a pair of grizzled, high-profile baseball men to the front office.
General manager Brian Cashman struck down an emerging narrative — the recent hires of advisors Omar Minaya and Brian Sabean was to remedy an organizational imbalance between data and traditional scouting — in an interview with The Post.
I feel we are balanced. I think there’s an inaccurate depiction of what really happens behind these walls. I think people who are analytic haters try to present things inaccurately. I think we have one of the best analytic departments in the sports industry. And we have one of the largest pro scouting departments in baseball. The job is to merge all of the performance science, player development, pro scouting, analytics — they’re all different pieces of the puzzle. And one piece isn’t any bigger than the other. … This was just an opportunity to grab two people that I think will benefit us and we’re excited [about], but it’s not a representation of anything out of balance. I feel like the balance exists and there’s a false narrative that it doesn’t, and I’m not gonna be able to counter that.
There is nothing wrong with analytics. There is also nothing wrong with scouting. The Yankees have not gone 13 years without a World Series appearance because they have too many Ivy Leaguers running algorithms. They have also not endured this championship drought because they lack guys armed with radar guns and chewing tobacco traipsing the country while living out of Marriotts.
If there is any narrative exiting the Minaya and Sabean moves, it should be this: The Yankees have had enough of the Astros. And they clearly are not going to spend their way past them. Those days are over. So they must buckle down and develop their future. Which is where Minaya and Sabean, two accomplished former general managers with sterling resumes, come in.
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James Kratch can be reached at james.kratch@xlmedia.com
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