When Netflix’s $50 million bid to air Major League Baseball games prevailed last year, the streaming giant was awarded a prime time window on Opening Day, a game between the New York Yankees and San Francisco Giants.
Netflix isn’t scheduled to air another game until August, when the Minnesota Twins and Philadelphia Phillies hook up in an Iowa cornfield (the “Field of Dreams” game).
MORE: Yankees’ Michael Kay makes blunt admission about losing Opening Day to Netflix
But Netflix’s influence on the Yankees won’t end on Opening Day.
According to Fox Sports’ Deesha Thosar, Yankees GM Brian Cashman has been studying organizational dynamics outside of baseball — and professional sports altogether — in an effort to improve his team.
Per Thosar, Netflix recently shared its company values with the public, and Cashman absorbed it like a sponge.
“Constantly trying to change and remake yourself is important,” Cashman said. “I just want to find out what’s underneath the hood and what makes somebody or some company or some sports entity tick. And if they’re having success, there are reasons behind it.”
The Netflix “culture code” that Cashman absorbed probably came from a longform interview with executive Reed Hastings Jr. that published in January.
Every team’s GM becomes a popular target among fans when the team falls short of its goals. The Yankees haven’t won the World Series since 2009. If they come up short again in 2026, their 17-year title drought will match the longest in the last century (1979-95) for baseball’s most storied franchise.
But Cashman oversaw the Yankees’ last championship, and the three before that. He is the longest-tenured head of baseball operations in MLB. His longevity is owed to his ability to evolve with the times, in an era when an explosion of data overwhelmed the game.
For Cashman’s next evolution, he might borrow a page from Netflix.
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