 Brian, can you believe what Don is saying? I believe that Aaron Boone is the manager of the year. I thought that he got rooked yesterday. Well, I'd say it's the competition. I thought Aaron Boone did a fantastic job, clearly. And I think we all do. But at the same time, it doesn't take away from the great jobs at the ball deli and Kevin Cash and the manager in Oakland. I mean, it's a stiff competition that the voting process is a lot of really quality candidates. But do you believe that there's an anti-Yankee bias while the Yankees have a high payroll, so he should win? And my point in this, Brian, is, yeah, you guys have a high payroll. Most of it was on the IL last year. I mean, I don't know. I don't really focus as much to that. The only consolation is that Aaron's got, for instance, and I'm not saying Aaron's disappointed, is that we found a way to get past Minnesota. And our ultimate goal is to win a championship with what we're all in this for. So I don't think Aaron's in it for the accolades of the manager of the year award or what have you. And they're nice when they come. But there's a lot of reasons that go into it. I think ball deli is deserving. Just like I thought Aaron Boone was deserving, and Kevin Cash would be deserving. But I guess for those people who know ball deli and they know how really an amazing person he is and a tremendous collection of the manager that Minnesota made that I think probably, speaking from the Yankees, you're happy for Rocco Bedelli. You're disappointed for Boone, but it's hard to be too disappointed when you know how really good Rocco really is too at the same time. So it's just, it's a beauty pageant and whoever, but there's a lot of amazing quality people that were in competition for it. I thought Aaron did an amazing job and I don't think he's really done anything more than he did do and that's all you can ask. All right, now you got an off season and I wonder how you look at it. Do you look at it and say we had a team that was good enough to win a championship? We just didn't? Or do you look at the off season as we came up short and now I have to figure out a way to spackle those holes so that doesn't happen again? Well, both. I mean, I think that our team was capable of a championship. We were in it with a legitimate chance to win it. I thought Aaron Boone's post-season press conference, I thought he articulated it really most accurately when he said we weren't a player or two away. We were a play or two away from playing in the World Series and that's what we truly believe. But that, the job at hand though is again, as we find ourselves trying to strategize for 2020 is how can we improve on this roster? It's, we won 100 games two years ago, 100 and three this year. It's hard to improve a roster that has those type of wins, but that doesn't diminish the need or the effort and the ability to try to find a way to improve upon it. And so we're going to this winter looking to continue to focus on our rotation. I think as is, we still have a very strong rotation if we have all people that are healthy in terms of Tanaka and Severino and Paxton and Hermon, although his situation hasn't been resolved yet, Montgomery's returning back into play. I think Jay Hap pitched much better or more representative of what Jay Hap's capabilities are the last two months of the season. So we're looking for a bounce back from him. And then we have some young kids pushing up the top but that doesn't preclude us from entering the trade and creating a market of how can we connect if we can connect with some really impactful talent towards the front of the rotation. The bullpen still our strength. It's one of the best in the business and baseball. We've got a really group of talented offensive minded players that have helped us impact that win column. So right on paper coming out of the shoot we're really, really good. And it's our job to make it better. And but that doesn't diminish the fact that we could have played in that World Series and taken a shot at the title. And we're looking forward to finding a way to get back and putting ourselves in that type of position again. And hopefully in about here or there or play near there, make the difference if we could pass forward into 2020. Brian Castron, Yankee Senior VP and General Manager joins us on the Michael K Show. Now you were kept from going to the World Series by the Astros this year and in 2017 also by the Astros. And with the story and the athletic that the Astros are using espionage to give signs and electronics and stuff like that. Does that leave a bitter taste in your mouth, Brian? Yeah, that article broke yesterday, timely time. We were at the GM meetings here in Scottsdale and our industry session had just concluded and the article broke during that sessions and we were collapsed right into our one hour commitment that all GMs have to do for the national media. Right. National and local media. So timing was interesting when that happened. So I took the, I'm gonna take the same approach I did yesterday. Clearly this article has a lot of strong allegations with people putting their names to it. Houston has responded with a statement saying that they'll take these allegations seriously and with Major League Baseball involved they will immediately start investigating this and cooperate fully. Clearly it's on Major League Baseball's fun burner now, their antenna is up and they will do their job and fully investigate. And I think based on all that, my best interest is no comment and I'd rather not participate more in what's going to play out is a very concerning story. All right, let me follow up with this. I know I saw the story that you didn't want to comment but I wanted to ask you over the last couple of years have the Yankees ever filed the grievance of Major League Baseball concerning the Astros? I'm not gonna comment on anything with this story currently or potential side stories. So obviously there's clearly someone has stepped up and more than one person has stepped up former players, you know, one with the use of Astros and fires with their name to it with some strong statements and I'll leave it that and Major League Baseball will pursue all areas I'm sure. But again, it's in their area. My job now is to try to put together the best team I possibly can as we move forward in 2020. Their job is to deal with issues that arise within the game that distract or compromise the game when and if they come up and that's not my job, it's in the hand of the commission's office and their personnel and so I'm just not gonna comment. All right, where do we stand? As far as you mentioned the starting pitching and addressing your rotation, where does that begin? You're looking for a one or just basically all five and mix a match from there? Well, you know, we'd like to have five ones let alone one. So I mean, I saw one of Scott Boris's representatives yesterday and certainly checked in on, you know, Garrett Cole and Steven Strasberg, for instance, and you know, I ran into the Met's former starter and wheeler I ran into his agent the other day and you know, so there's a lot of high end guys and there's guys aren't considered in that category but still could benefit your clubs. So we're checking the boxes by engaging the agents that represent, you know, all these type of players and then also talking to the available trade market and trying to see if we match up with anything with the opposing clubs that are in existence. So we'll see, but it's an area of focus for us clearly. I mean, obviously the innings are important. And as you see too, going into 2020, we have two guys who are creatives at the end of the year and Tanaka and Paxton too. Now we're excited about Seve coming back. You know, we know who Peely is one of the better pitchers in the American League from the starting rotation side and we were denied his services for 80% of the season it felt like. So hopefully we can follow that this past season up with the real Seve coming back and the play for us and combine them with what we saw from Paxton last three months this season and get Jordan Montgomery who's ever saw him as a real crafty, tough left-hander and you know, Masa has always been what he's been. He's been a tremendous player for us since we brought him in from Japan and if I can add to that and we get a bounce back from a half, I think at the very least at the starting point and by improving upon it, you know, it would improve in theory our chances to obviously increase our odds to be the best we can possibly be, which is hopefully a world champ. Because you're so good at what you do, obviously you are doing your due diligence on all these free agents, but I'm just wondering they're not gonna come cheap, especially the high-end guys. Do you have payroll constraints, Brian? I mean, there's always a business component to everything you do. And if you were interviewing me at this particular time last year, obviously, you know, people were talking about Bryce Harper, they're talking about Man in the Chateau and we certainly were engaged with some of those high-end guys and you don't know where they're gonna lead and our ownership gives us a lot of latitude and they stay very directly involved every step of the way and that I would not have, you know, at this stage at last year, you know, the way these things play out, you kind of crawl through a lot of conversations with clubs and their agents. And that eventually led us to Trading for Paxton, Signing VJLMAU and Sonny Ativanio and Britain to name a few of the moves we obviously made and then eventually in the spring during talkment, maybe some other things sprinkled in but not much past that. But, you know, the way these things emerge, they just, they kind of organically grow into various conversations and touchpoints when you're engaged with these agents and clubs. And so I know the easy thing right now is to focus on some of the big names and we, I promise you, will be doing that but we'll also be touching on some mid-level and some lower unknowns that might manifest themselves into some interesting conversations down the line. So trust me, I know one thing, we are going to stay connected, get as much information as we can, we can provide as much information as we can to the opposing teams as well as agents and then gravitate to what is the most realistic, you know, Hal Steinminer and his owner and the Steinminer family has always provided us a wealth of opportunity to stay in almost all conversations and I don't anticipate that changing that doesn't guarantee certain results on certain individuals but it does guarantee the engagement and interest levels will be there in the forefront and they'll either strengthen or dissipate depending on how these conversations go and what the other alternative choices happen to be. But you know when it comes to a Strausberg recall that there's gonna be teams out there that will go the extra mile to land these types of pitchers. So I guess the question becomes, I'm sure you have a budget, I'm sure you have what you believe every pitcher is worth but how far out those constraints are you willing to go to be able to land pitchers of that high and elk? You know, I don't think it's in my best interest to be transparent under those circumstances and you know, if I answered that in a positive way, you know, it only benefits the players in the agent I've answered in a negative way and probably guilty of collusion or something. So I think that's just best for me to tell you we will be as we always are very diligent in our effort to improve our upon a 103 win team from 2019 and somehow improve upon it and put it in a stronger position to, you know, obviously defending American League East first and foremost and find a way to get past all American League contenders to represent that, you know, about leading the World Series and that's, and hopefully take that down. So somehow some way like always that's the charge that's the effort and it's gonna be a journey. So, you know, I can't, you know, hopefully it's sometimes sooner than later we'll be in a position to at least introduce any new members that will be joining that effort. You know, that would mean I'd be speaking to an acquisition via trade or free agent side, but obviously we're in the early stage of this thing. So it's gonna have to play out obviously for a period of time. How about your free agents? Are you close on Gardner? Do you have interest in bringing DD back? I've talked to the guardies agent multiple times. I've talked to these DDs agent who happens to be Dylan's agent as well and he's got other players in the marketplace outside of us that might be of interest too and that's Jim Murray's firm, so in case he close runs. So I'm checking all the boxes and staying in touch, having more conversations on certain subjects than others, but I'm not allowed to say who, you know, given the rules of the collective bargaining agreement. And finally, you quoted in the papers today, it was very interesting about Ann Doohar that he could be a guy that you could move around. Where do you think his skill set allows you to play him? Could he play a middle and field of role? Do you think he could be an outfielder with his skills? We know he can hit, but how about defensively? Yeah, that's the question of hand. I mean, you know, in that media session that we had yesterday for an hour, I was responding to a very direct question of, hey, what's he doing? How good he is? I mean, is there a chance for Ann Doohar to maybe play elsewhere? And I acknowledge clearly that, yeah, it's something we played around daydreaming about a little bit. We haven't actually implemented anything on it. We haven't given him a first base glove, so to speak, or an outfield glove, so to speak yet. Doesn't mean we won't, but the one thing about, you know, first the GEO was that it was a really tremendous season he had, both defensively and offensively at third, and it was a gift from God. You know, so when we lost to Miguel Andoar, you know, GEO coming in and doing what he did was spectacular. And so that's his position to lose. And then that doesn't deny or allow us to forget how impactful Miguel Andoar was in 2018. You know, finishing second of the year, he was a 23-year-old that posted an amazing OPS in his maiden voyage. So that's a bat that you'd want in the lineup that reminds me of when we had Soriano pushing through. I think it was Jeter went down with a hamstring or something or a groin in spring training and so for like three weeks, Soriano took the reps in short and was just so impactful with the bat and that we were like, we got to find a way to get this guy in the lineup. And at first, I think it went up the left field and eventually settled to the second base. And his career took off obviously and was never to be denied since. Miguel is the type of offensive player that makes you daydream that way. All right, well, if GEO or Shella doesn't get this thing back, you know, you know, obviously we have flexibility to send that in the heart of AAA, but should we look at them at first? Should we look at them in the outfield? I'm not saying we should. I just think we have to have the conversation. I think clearly the DJ LaMagu experiment played out really well, having that versatility and flexibility for first, second, third, covered us in a lot of different ways and somebody, Miggie, covers us differently. I just don't know. It might not fit. I'm definitely getting a lot of interest in Miguel and the heart where I'm sitting out here. I've got clubs asking me, what are you gonna do with him? We'd have an interest in him. Mark is down. So I think there's a whole array of opportunity choices that we will be walking through as we navigate this winter. But first and foremost, we're looking for him to returning to health and getting back to what he does really well, which is play baseball and he's an exciting talent. And so how best to deploy that talent remains to be seen.