A 93-win season and a 3-0 ALDS sweep cost two baseball lifers their jobs. Omar Minaya and Brian Sabean, former general managers serving as New York Yankees special assistants, will not return in 2027. The report landed Saturday, Oct. 31.
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“The Yankees aren’t renewing the contracts of Omar Minaya and Brian Sabean,” New York Post MLB insider Jon Heyman wrote, “who served as special assistants to GM Brian Cashman, via sources.”
Losing both together hits hard because the Yankees hired them two days apart in January 2023. Sabean built three San Francisco Giants champions in 2010, 2012, and 2014, while Minaya ran the Montreal Expos and New York Mets. Heyman gave no reason and named no replacements.
The 93-68 Yankees finished 4.5 games behind the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League East, so the balance between analytics and scouting matters. Sabean and Minaya supplied old-school eyes that models cannot replicate.
Sabean began as a Yankees scout in 1985, became vice president of player development and scouting, helped build the Core Four, then left for San Francisco in 1993.
His San Francisco run was no fluke.
Giants posted winning records in 13 of 18 seasons during Sabean’s tenure as general manager from 1997 through 2014.
Meanwhile, Minaya’s path differed.
As a Texas Rangers scout, he helped identify Sosa and catcher Iván Rodríguez, then ran the Montreal Expos and the Mets before consulting for MLB on domestic and international amateur scouting.
Timing adds another layer to this change.
The Yankees announced Sabean on Jan. 3, 2023, and Minaya on Jan. 5. Now, the pair exit together after nearly four years.
The shakeup reaches the scouting ranks too.
Joel Sherman, a reporter for the New York Post, added that Tommy Wilson, a scout since 2004, and Pat Murtaugh, who joined in 2015 and is retiring, will not return.
Sherman reported that the club hired Frank Herrmann, a former big-league reliever and Toronto Blue Jays front-office staffer, as supervisor for global evaluation and player-development integration. The role hints at where resources may flow.
With both gone, Jim Hendry, a special assignments scout and former Chicago Cubs general manager, is the lone adviser with prior GM experience. Assistant GMs Jean Afterman and Michael Fishman still anchor Cashman’s circle.
Stability still defines the rest of the picture.
Cashman signed a new deal, manager Aaron Boone returns for the final year of his contract, and pitching coach Matt Blake landed a three-year extension.
All of this follows an October exit that ended almost before it started. The numbers behind that sweep explain the urgency.
Yankees’ playoff collapse sets the stage for a reshaped offseason
Start with how fast it unraveled.
After a 2-0 sweep of the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium in the Wild Card Series, the Yankees never led across 27 innings against the Rays and fell 3-0 in the American League Division Series.
Game 1 held the offense to a single hit, and Game 2 turned into a defensive meltdown with four errors. Game 3 on Oct. 7 ended in a 4-3 loss that sealed the sweep and closed the book on the season.
Captain and outfielder Aaron Judge was off the ALDS roster and inactive for the Wild Card Series after appearing in 66 regular season games. The lineup lacked its middle-of-the-order anchor for every inning of a sweep that ended with a 4-3 loss in Game 3 on Oct. 8.
Pitching was not the problem, since the Yankees staff led the majors with a 3.23 ERA and the club extended its winning-season streak to 34.
Still, the drought reached 17 years, and Hal Steinbrenner, the managing general partner, blamed underperforming players, a move that could put the hitting group under review.