Yankeetorial: If it's Michael Tomato, Cash must go

Didn't we all want to be Brian Cashman?

The guy spans several Yankee generations, one of the last links to Old George. He built our farm system, personally sweet-talked CC Sabathia into coming East. Like Jeet and Mariano, his whole career has been Yankees, Yankees, Yankees. He is of-the-cloth. He is the Everyman who walked among the gods - and decided he had become one.

WTF happened to him? What made him into an adrenaline junkie, a risk-taker and an obsessive gambler? He climbs buildings, he slips off with nutcase stalkers, he crashes his wife and kids, and now, he may have gutted the Yankees for the next 15 years on a trade that - simply stated - he didn't have to make.

Last winter, if Cashman did nothing, we now would have six solid starters, plus Andy Pettitte returning, and we'd have Jesus Montero, one of baseball's next great young hitters ready to electrify New York. If Cashman did nothing. But he couldn't. He bellied up to the roulette table, placed everything on a pitcher the Mariners were willing to trade - right there, a flag should have raised - and today, Michael Pineda goes for an MRI on his shoulder.

The impact of today's MRI could haunt us for the next 20 years.

OK, get a grip... Pineda had one bad outing last night, and today's MRI might show nothing. It's too soon to panic in Needle Park. Last week, we practically had Joba on his death bed, and now he might be back in August. This could blow over. We could laugh at this... haha... 

Yeah, right. Well, hear this, Yankiverse:

If Michael Pineda goes south, it needs to fall hard on Cashman. He will have brought his downfall on himself. I'm starting to sense a self-destructive gene, a psychological desire to blow-up everything he's built -- and if so, he's not the guy we want running the New York Yankees. He's now on double-secret probation.