jon abbey said:
My takeaway from this is just that Cashman would prefer there not be a captain, and this is a perfect time to push that perspective, because 1) it's not really necessary and 2) it's something else he needs to pay someone for or that might get in the way of moving a guy. The earlier part of the quote from that piece:
"I'm not a big advocate of giving out the captaincy anyway. I'm not going to recommend anyone being named captain of the New York Yankees right away.''
This is my take on it as well. My read on Cashman, for what it's worth, is that he's a little more practical and a little less swept up in the Yankee mythology as some others. As JA said, there are real world implications to having a captain that could make his job more difficult down the road, and it sounds to me like he's just trying to take advantage of this opportunity to not deal with it anymore.
In fact, if you read the piece it comes off less as "Derek Jeter was such a pinnacle of leadership that having anyone try to replace him does a disservice to the game of baseball" and more "We can have leadership in the club house without having a designated official captain.
And [Cashman] pointed out Thursday that there are often many different leaders within a big league clubhouse, even during Jeter's 11-year tenure as captain, the longest in Yankees history.
"Everyone knows that Mariano Rivera took care of the relievers and Andy Pettitte took care of the starters,'' Cashman said. "And of course the managers, Joe Torre and Joe Girardi, were leaders as well. So I'm not an advocate of one guy being 'the guy.'"
"I didn't think we needed a captain this year, and I think guys need to lead," Girardi told ESPNNewYork.com. "I don't think you necessarily have to have a captain to have leaders.
"I don't think you have to have a 'C' on your chest to be a leader."
On a separate note, if Derek Jeter actually did get into the Hall of Fame unanimously, which I think will never happen because there will always be at least one person who does something inane like turn in a blank ballot to protest Jack Morris never being elected, it may cause my brain to explode.