NEW YORK — The Yankees will not renew the contracts of Omar Minaya and Brian Sabean, two veteran baseball executives serving as special assistants to general manager Brian Cashman, according to a report Saturday, Oct. 31, from MLB insider Jon Heyman.
The decision removes two former general managers from New York’s front office nearly four years after they joined the organization in January 2023. Minaya previously ran the Mets and Montreal Expos, while Sabean helped build the San Francisco Giants’ three World Series championship teams.
The departures come as the Yankees retain Cashman and manager Aaron Boone for the 2027 season. While the team’s top leadership remains unchanged following another disappointing postseason exit, the organization is reshaping part of the advisory group supporting its baseball decisions.
The changes also raise questions about the Yankees’ approach to scouting and player evaluation. Both executives arrived with extensive traditional scouting backgrounds and decades of front-office experience.
Heyman confirms contract decisions for both advisers
Heyman identified the two executives as special assistants to Cashman and described the decision as contract nonrenewals.
“The Yankees aren’t renewing the contracts Omar Minaya and Brian Sabean, who served as special assistants to GM Brian Cashman, via sources,” Heyman wrote.
The Yankees originally appointed Minaya as senior adviser to baseball operations and Sabean as executive adviser to the general manager. Those titles placed both men in advisory roles supporting the club’s baseball decisions.
Heyman also supplied the career context behind the names, identifying Minaya with the Mets and Sabean with San Francisco’s most successful period. His report did not state a reason for the nonrenewals or name replacements.
Two hires separated by two days reach the same exit
The Yankees announced Sabean’s appointment Jan. 3, 2023, and Minaya’s Jan. 5. That two-day hiring sequence now has a shared endpoint in the same reported contract decision.
The pairing is significant because the Yankees added both men as experienced evaluators. Losing both together changes that particular combination of scouting and general manager experience, even with Cashman continuing to lead baseball operations.
Sabean’s history reaches back to an earlier Yankees era. He worked in the organization from 1985 through 1992, progressing from scout to scouting director and then vice president of player development and scouting.
He subsequently spent 30 seasons with the Giants. San Francisco won the World Series in 2010, 2012 and 2014 during his tenure as general manager, giving him three championships within five seasons.
Minaya brought a different route through the sport. He worked for the Rangers, Mets, Expos and Padres, and later served MLB as a consultant on domestic and international amateur scouting. His Texas scouting work included helping discover Sammy Sosa and Iván Rodríguez.
Cashman enters the offseason with an advisory change
For the Yankees, the immediate effect concerns the group evaluating baseball decisions. The reported departures do not themselves fill a lineup opening, strengthen the bullpen or change a player’s place on the roster.
Their practical significance will become clearer as the club establishes who handles those advisory responsibilities next. The current development is narrower and concrete: two veteran executives are leaving the group around a returning general manager.
Cashman will lead the Yankees into the next offseason without two experienced former general managers in his advisory group. The club’s next decisions will reveal how it plans to replace the scouting and executive perspectives they provided.
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