MLB hot stove: Yankees’ Brian Cashman explains highest offseason priority

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman explained his highest MLB hot stove priority as left-hander J.A. Happ, left-hander Patrick Corbin, outfielder Bryce Harper, shortstop Manny Machado and other stars still sit on the free agent market.

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Pitching, pitching and more pitching.

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman made it clear that adding quality pitchers — both to the starting rotation and to the bullpen — is his top priority while speaking on Fox 5 “Good Day New York” on Tuesday.

1 offseason priority for every Yankees player

Here are Cashman’s full quotes:

“Well, we need multiple starting pitchers. So, we did import CC (Sabathia) back into the mix, with his leadership and his abilities, and now I’d like to add two more starters to the rotation. We’ve lost some free agents in David Robertson and (Zach) Britton out of the bullpen so those are important pieces so the bullpen needs to be tended to. And we talked about the Didi issue earlier, it’s the middle infield side of this thing, is obviously very important. As we know, our captain was Derek Jeter for all those years and since then it’s Didi Gregorius. You need strength up the middle and we’ve got to kind of solidify that until Didi gets back. So, those are the most important areas.

“We need pitching. Our offense is really strong. The pitching, especially the starting pitching, we’ve got to come up with real quality innings from a number of different people. We had great pitching last year, it just wasn’t good enough. If we can fortify that rotation I think it will give our dynamic offensive young players a shot. We’ve got some really good talented young crew, but I need to surround them with more high level pitching.

“And then, we’re progressive and open minded. We’re going to be constantly listening and prying at different things that might surprise people. But, I think we typically do that on a year in and year out basis and run into anything that can make us better. I’ll just be all eyes, all ears and see where it takes me.”

Brendan Kuty may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @BrendanKutyNJ. Find NJ.com Yankees on Facebook.