What is the REAL Problem with the Yankees?

Joe Girardi just signed a 4-year contract extension worth $16 Million plus incentives, making him the second highest manager in MLB.  So much for the elusive and illusionary concept of "Pay-for-Performance".

I am a died-in-the-wool Yankees fan, all the way back to my earliest childhood memories in the late forties.  I have Yankees boxers, Yankees pajamas, an official Yankees field jacket, and a Yankees cap.   However, for the past few years I have become a slightly disaffected Yankees fan, but especially so right now.

There are two sources of my discontent with the Yankees: Joe Girardi and GM Brian Cashman. 

My problem with Joe is that he is an ineffectual manager, accepting whatever level of play and performance any player or the entire squad turns in on any given day.  His body language is deplorable, so often seen hanging with his arms drooped over the dugout fence.  There is zero Billy Martin or Buck Showalter in Joe Girardi.  I truly think some of Joe's lackadaisical demeanor  has rubbed-off on guys like Cano and Granderson, as it certainly had on Nick Swisher, whom I thought had degenerated into an undisciplined goofball by the time he left New York for Cleveland.

My problems with Cashman are (a) Joe Girardi, and (b) I heard with my own ears from Cashman a couple of years back that he did not want to be GM of the Yankees.  But as with Girardi's decision, this week, I believe Cashman likes the money too much, and just stays-on with the Yankees, continuing to blow with the wind, especially concerning Girardi's lackluster performance.

We are now stuck with good old Joe for the next four years.  The only relief I see for the Yankees would be the unexpected departure of Cashman, and just maybe, Cano grows up and gets over himself a little next season.  But I am not hopeful of any of that coming to pass.

I would hate to see Cano leave and then get "rehabilitated", re-focused and motivated under a real baseball manager, then come back to hurt the Yankees as an adversary.  But as it stands right this minute, Robbie makes too much money, with the Yankees having finished out of contention and over the salary tax cap.  But I am viewing the Cano situation as part and parcel of both the Cashman and Girardi "real problems" with the NY Yankees.

Maybe Derek Jeter could try his hand managing the Yankees in four years?