hopefully, you’ve not had the misfortune of being thrown under the bus in your career. unfortunately, you likely have been. the phenomenon is commonplace in office politics and can take just about anyone off-guard — including those at or near the top of their organizations. consider an interesting example from the last ten days. general manager brian cashman of the new york yankees is the guy who negotiates and signs players for the team. he had been on record that the team wouldn’t be peddling its first round pick in the 2011 draft for anyone remaining on the market. yankees’ ownership “went around” him in signing a key player, relief pitcher extraordinaire rafael soriano. they paid him closer money (in the range of what they’re paying hall of fame lock mariano rivera on a yearly basis) to play the role of setup to rivera. ownership felt it needed to save face because they hadn’t unveiled a signature free agent contract in the offseason. usually, the yankees are among the first to announce a new face that is sure to make the team better. fans had become more than a little restless.
what happened next was a bit unexpected. instead of allowing the message to be that he changed his mind, brian cashman crawled out from under the bus and throw the yankees in front of the next one. cash claimed that he didn’t authorize the move. that his position on the matter was the same, that the yankees micromanaged the situation and he continues to feel it was the wrong move. he was careful to underline that he likes the player just didn’t agree with the money and terms of the deal. the yankees were absolutely pawning their future (the 2011 first round draft pick) for soriano. bad business.
normally, i would say that you don’ fight fire with fire. in this case, it is not so cut and dry. put yourself in rafael soriano’s shoes for a moment. what is his likely next move? i’m certain he will work twice as hard to show brian cashman that he is worth every penny and more — which is exactly what the general manager needs to see. in his mind, getting soriano supremely focused may be his only chance to squeeze the necessary value out of the deal to make it worth what he wouldn’t have paid in the first place. he is left to live with the deal, so he might as well make the most of it.
masterfully played, cash. you might just have created a framework for a win-win-win scenario between soriano, yankees ownership and cashman.
