He's baaaaaaack.

Brian Cashman agreed to a three-year contract Tuesday to return as general manager of the New York Yankees.  The deal is reportedly worth about $8 million.

There was speculation that Cashman would move on to Seattle or Philadelphia, but I was pretty confident that he was going to stay in The Big Apple.  There has been a lot of finger pointing this season and Cashman received a fair share of it since the Yanks failed to make the playoffs for the first time in 13 years.  A lot of fans and media were calling for his head, but I never really felt that Cashman was the only guy to blame.

Cashman's tenure as GM in the Bronx began in 1998 and there have been good times and bad times under his watch.  The Bombers won championships in 1998, 1999 and 2000 and went to the World Series in 2001 and 2003.  Cashman engineered the trade that brought Roger Clemens to New York in 1999, signed Mike Mussina as a free agent following the 2000 season and pulled the trigger on the Alex Rodriguez trade in 2004.

That was the good.

But Cashman was also responsible for bringing in Carl Pavano and Jared Wright in 2005, signing Kei Igawa in 2007 and failing to get Johan Santana this past offseason.

That was the bad.

I wasn't too keen on the Pavano, Wright or Igawa moves, but I sided with Cashman and the Yanks when they passed on Santana, albeit reluctantly.  Here's what I wrote about it back in December.  Obviously, that non-move turned out to be a disaster (for now) and I think that, combined with the Yankees poor 2008 season, contributed to the hate that grew for Cashman this season.

Still, give Cashman credit for not wanting to leave when things got tough.

"I've got a job to finish here," Cashman said in a statement issued by the team. "That's the bottom line.

"I consider coming off a season where we didn't reach the playoffs for the first time since 1993 as a personal challenge. I've never been one to run from a challenge, and I look forward to having the chance to go after this thing again."

I don't think the Mariners or Phillies or any other team was going to give Cashman the deal the Yanks gave him, so that may have had something to do with him staying, but I like his grit.  He realized missing the postseason was embarrassing considering the Yankees payroll and yet that didn't scare him away.

This offseason will be big for the Yanks (when is it not?) and it will be interesting to see if Cashman continues to believe in the younger players or opts instead to go head-first and sign big-name free agents.  Maybe a combination of both will do the trick.

It's in your hands, Cash.

And everyone will be watching.
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