The fallout after an explosive Yankees week: Aaron Judge’s input, the $300 million budget, hitting coach disconnect

Well, that was some general managers’ meetings.

Beginning with Brian Cashman’s fiery defense of his baseball operations group and ending with a virus that spread its way around executives — including a handful from the Yankees — it was an eventful few days in Scottsdale, Ariz.

It was the first time we heard from the Yankees — both Cashman, in Arizona, and Hal Steinbrenner, via Zoom — since their disappointing 82-80 season ended. The organization stayed mostly silent for five weeks and then delivered a doubleheader of sessions with reporters on Tuesday that may have just enraged an already fed-up fan base even further.

The reality, as Cashman acknowledged a few times in his 67-minute scrum, is that there was not much he could have said that would have fully satisfied those fans.

“It doesn’t matter what I say,” Cashman said. “It doesn’t matter what Hal says. It doesn’t matter what [Aaron] Boone says. It matters what we do because at the end of the day, it’s all about wins. It’s all about the wins this year. We didn’t get the wins.”

And until they do that next season, the unrest will likely remain.

In the meantime, there may be some leftover questions in the aftermath of the GM meetings, so we’ll attempt to answer them here:

Does Aaron Judge have a more prominent voice in the team’s decision-making?

A few times after the Yankees were officially eliminated from playoff contention, Judge made it clear he planned to offer suggestions and his insight to Steinbrenner as the club tried to figure out how it all went wrong this year. As the team captain and someone who is just one season into a nine-year, $360 million contract, Judge certainly has a vested interest in the future of the organization — as does Gerrit Cole, another important leader in the clubhouse.

Still, it was interesting how Steinbrenner made multiple references to Judge while pledging that the Yankees’ vague incoming changes would be sufficient.

“[The] changes that we make, that Aaron Judge and I may think this is a pretty significant change, [reporters] may not,” Steinbrenner said. “But changes will be made.”

Judge’s support of Boone was certainly a factor in the manager remaining in his post, and he may have also been in the corner for James Rowson, the club’s former minor league hitting coordinator who is expected to be hired as the next hitting coach.

Cashman was asked if he was comfortable with Judge’s level of access to Steinbrenner with regards to decision-making.

“That’s not any different than any year,” Cashman said. “Whether it was all the way back to George Steinbrenner who, if you watch documentaries and stuff, you know he relied on what Lou Piniella said or what Thurman Munson said or what Reggie Jackson said or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

“I go to our players all the time about a number of different topics and get their feedback because they’re on the front line. It’s a players’ game, and since they’re on the front line, ‘What do you got? What do you see? What’s the problem? What needs to be fixed? This is what we see, what do you see? Can you help me with a problem?’

“So I don’t think that it’s a problem at all. And when you partner with somebody for that kind of money, he’s gonna have some seat at the table, as he should. But this is a players’ game, no doubt about it, and they’ve got some good information that they can provide. We’re not going to ignore it.”

It was notable that Judge, on the final day of the regular season, said he had spoken more with Steinbrenner than Cashman throughout the year, but added he was looking forward to having meetings with both this offseason.

It seems clear the franchise is keeping a tighter budget. Are the constraints holding this team back?

Steinbrenner and Cashman both declined to say what their payroll would look like next season, aside from indicating that it would not hinder them from being active in the free-agent and trade markets.

Steinbrenner has said on multiple occasions that you shouldn’t need a $300 million payroll to win a championship. The Yankees had a projected luxury tax payroll of $298 million in 2023 and it led to their worst season since 1992. They currently have a projected luxury tax payroll of $252 million for next year, per Cot’s Contracts, and that’s before making any additions.

“The $300 million is not a hard threshold, any more than the last 293 [million dollar] threshold is,” Steinbrenner said. “”But yes, I do believe that a team shouldn’t need a $300 million payroll [to win a title]. Nobody has yet — Rangers didn’t, Astros didn’t last year. What you need is a good mix of veteran players, and equally important a good mix of young players.

“We’re going to get a bit younger. You’re gonna see one or more of the guys you saw in September on the opening day roster. That’s the hope. I don’t know how many of them, but we are going to get younger; they’re going to get their chances just as [Anthony] Volpe got his chance and did very good.”

The offense has been anything but dynamic the past few seasons. Is the problem the coaching or the players receiving that advice?

While defending the Yankees’ player development group, Cashman actually shed some more light on why it didn’t work out having Dillon Lawson as the major league hitting coach. He wanted to give Lawson credit for the work he did as the club’s minor league hitting coordinator before he was promoted to hitting coach.

“Dillon Lawson obviously lost his job this year in-season, and it was because of a lack of connectivity with our major league players. And that’s a different animal, right?” Cashman said. “Major league players at the big league level, that’s like lions and tigers and bears, oh my. On the minor league side, there’s a lot more control. That’s like a petting zoo. So it’s a little different operating when you’re trying to win games at the major league level and it’s difficult. And if you don’t connect with those guys who are veteran millionaires and everything else, and they tune you out and you lose the clubhouse, so be it.

“Dillon did a lot of good things, too. He left a lot of good things behind that I want to acknowledge and say, ‘Hey, man, you did a good job in a lot of different areas.’ But in the major league level this past year — the previous year, we were flying high with big numbers, but this past year, no, the opposite. It didn’t work out. Once you lose the clubhouse, there’s no going back on that. So, we made a change.”

Of course, having a roster with better hitters on it might have helped, too.

Why are the Yankees getting so much flak for their use of analytics? Is the franchise using them in a different way than other organizations?

Analytics certainly have their place in today’s game, and one of Cashman’s most emphatic points was that the analytics department they used during an 82-win season in 2023 was the same one they used for a 99-win season in 2022. But based on the number of recent acquisitions that have backfired, it does seem like something might need to change in the Yankees’ process.

This is where their year-long partnership with Zelus Analytics could help. The Yankees will get a look at the algorithms Zelus uses for player projection models, among other things, and how it compares to their own internal data. It’s possible they could decide they need to tweak their models, though that remains to be seen.

Which of the Yankees’ own free agents could return?

At the outset, the most likely would appear to be reliever Keynan Middleton, who made it clear he would definitely be open to a return after enjoying his two months with the organization. The Yankees will need a few bullpen reinforcements, and Middleton would not be a bad choice for one of them.

The Yankees have also mulled bringing back Frankie Montas, The Post reported this week. His Yankees tenure has been a brutal one because of injuries, but they believe in the pitcher when healthy.

“He’s going to sign a contract, whether it’s here [with the Yankees] or somewhere else, and I guarantee he’ll probably shove again,” Cashman said this week.

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Safety in numbers

Tuesday at 6 p.m. ET marks the deadline for teams to set their 40-man rosters ahead of next month’s Rule 5 draft. If teams don’t protect certain players by adding them to the 40-man roster by Tuesday, they will be eligible to be selected by another team.

The Yankees took care of one of those additions on Monday when they added catcher Carlos Narvaez to the 40-man roster.

Right-hander Clayton Beeter, acquired for Joey Gallo last year, is also expected to be added.

From there, the decisions get a little less clear, but names to watch as potential 40-man additions include right-handed pitcher Matt Sauer, catcher Agustin Ramirez, left-hander pitcher Edgar Barclay, outfielder Elijah Dunham and infielder Jared Serna.

The Yankees currently have two open spots on the 40-man roster. They could create more openings by next Friday’s non-tender deadline, with possible non-tender candidates including Kyle Higashioka (he also could be traded), Albert Abreu, Lou Trivino and Jake Bauers.