If you want to fire Brian Cashman right now, I understand. I think you can make a case built around, particularly, Cashman not maximizing the draft and international signings.

Cashman famously said in December 2018 — between the Yankees’ loss to the Red Sox in the Division Series and the organization’s decision to not sign Bryce Harper or Manny Machado — that when it came to baseball operations, “We’re a fully operational Death Star.”

But they aren’t. They have not hit enough in the draft, with international signings or by developing the prospects they do have to a level of, say, the Astros and Dodgers. Yes, they draft late every year because of regular-season success, and their international pool of money is curtailed by rule. Still, even with those obstacles, there are not enough success stories. Is that the result of procurement, development or both?

A fully operational Death Star does not lose talented arms such as Trevor Stephan and Garrett Whitlock for nothing in the December 2019 Rule 5 draft while protecting Chance Adams and Brooks Kriske, not to mention Ben Heller and Stephen Tarpley (you want me to keep going?). A fully operational Death Star does not use metrics to make a case that a team can win a championship with Gary Sanchez catching and Gleyber Torres at shortstop because, if so, it is using the wrong metrics and/or interpreting them incorrectly and/or just not paying attention to the reality in front of them.