Around the Empire: Yankees news - 11/5/22

MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: The Yankees’ authorities, namely general manager Brian Cashman and skipper Aaron Boone, held their end-of-the-season conference with one main takeaway: the need to get back to the World Series.

“Back to the drawing board,” Cashman said. “Even though we have fallen short against Houston, it’s obviously any of the [teams] that are standing in our way between us and winning a World Series. We’ve got to improve ourselves and give ourselves the best shot.”

Like owner Hal Steinbrenner, Cashman gave a vote of confidence to Boone, saying he is “a very good manager,” and outlined the plans for the offseason in a general way.

NJ Advance Media | Brendan Kuty: Remember when Luis Severino signed a four-year, $40 million with an option for 2023? Well, that contract is already up. Time flies. The Yankees, however, do have that team option, and according to Cashman, they intend to exercise it.

The option is worth $15 million. After 2023, however, Sevy is going to hit the market unless he and the team negotiate another extension. Severino had a 3.18 ERA in 19 starts and 102 innings, with 112 punchouts.

WFAN: The Yankees, through Cashman, expressed interest in bringing back pitching coach Matt Blake, whose contract is also up. “That’s our hope. I think Matt’s done a great job, and like anything else with your coaches, you want them to have great knowledge and the ability to share that and impact players in a positive way,” the GM stated.

The Yankees had the third-best ERA in baseball this year at 3.30, as Blake got the best out of Nestor Cortes, Michael King, Clay Holmes, and other members of the staff. The organization’s overall pitching program received rave reviews as well.

In WFAN’s article, there are updates about several players, like Anthony Rizzo, DJ LeMahieu, Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Hicks, Jose Trevino, and more.

The Score | Bryan McWilliam: Cashman also referred to the Aaron Judge situation, although he didn’t provide any new information. “I’m not going to comment at this stage on any of it. I’ll just restate ... we’d love to keep him, love to have him back,” Cashman said, according to YES Network.

“Obviously, he placed a bet on himself, and that bet has paid off. He had an amazing run, continued to add to the back of his baseball card. He’s got a lot more game left in him, so we hope that game happens to remain in pinstripes.” Judge turned down a seven-year, $213.5 million deal before the start of the season and will be able to speak to other teams five days after the World Series ends.

Judge set the new American League record for most home runs in a single season with 62, and fought for the Triple Crown until the last series of the season. He also had 131 RBIs, scored 133 runs, and hit .311/.425/.686 in 157 games.

NY Post | Dan Martin: During his conversation with the press, Cashman revealed that his contract expanded on October 31st and while team allegedly expressed interest in keeping him, nothing is set in stone yet.

“[Steinbrenner] said we’ll obviously talk and expressed interest in having me back,” Cashman said at Yankee Stadium on Friday. “Of course, I’d like to stay, but we have not had other further discussions on that. … We’ll see how it plays out.”

Cashman did confirm that he hasn’t talked to other teams.

NJ Advance Media | Bridget Hyland: The “Fall Star Game,” in which some of the best Arizona Fall League prospects appear, will take place on Sunday. Several Yankees prospects are expected to participate, most notably Jasson Domínguez.

The “Martian” slashed just .167/.288/.229 in the fall, but everybody will be looking forward to watching the esteemed prospect take an at-bat or two. Other Yankees prospects on the roster are infielders T.J. Rumfield and Tyler Hardman.

MLB Trade Rumors | Anthony Franco: For the Yankees, the time for making key decisions on qualifying offers is getting closer. MLBTR names Judge as a lock to get one, while Rizzo and Jameson Taillon are potential candidates to receive it (though the pitcher is less likely).

Andrew Benintendi is a pending free agent, but since he was acquired midseason, he is not eligible to receive a qualifying offer.