Brian Cashman talks postseason failure, retooling for 2013

New York Yankees' general manager Brian Cashman spoke about the team's postseason failures and his strategy for putting together a team capable of winning a World Series in 2013 this offseason.

Cashman, like many, was clueless as to how the team completely collapsed offensively in the playoffs, getting unceremoniously swept in four games by the Detroit Tigers in the ALCS. He expressed confusion as to how a team that earned the top record in the American League could only muster six runs in the series, despite generally starting pitching performances:

"You could take snapshots at any time during the regular season and we had I think two or three four-game losing streaks during the regular season, and we had one obviously in that Tigers series. And that was it. And we went home. And not from the pitching, but on the offensive side. We had what I've been calling 'the Yankee flu' that spread through our offense."

Cashman avoided rumors as to what he'll do with Alex Rodriguez, but did touch on how the team plans on gearing itself up for next year. With management wanting the team to cut payroll by 2014, he spoke on how the team intends on looking for good options on short-term contracts, much as he did a year ago:

"Last winter, we wound up coming away with (Raul) Ibanez and (Eric) Chavez and (Hiroki) Kuroda and (Andy) Pettitte, all these guys on one-year deals. We traded in season for a player like Ichiro Suzuki, who had one year left on his contract. Those are all because of the talent and the assessment of the talent to look at the potential impact they could be for our franchise. But at the same time, they were from a pool of players that were on short-term type deals that could give us flexibility and make us one of the better teams in the short term, but also give us flexibility in the long term."

Here's the full video of Cashman's conversation with Francesa: