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Cashman says Yankees need to add multiple pitchers

Mike Stobe / Getty Images Sport / Getty

As expected, the New York Yankees are poised to be busy this offseason.

General manager Brian Cashman said Monday that the team's number one priority is pitching.

"We need to reinforce our pitching, so we'll do the best we can with that," Cashman said, according to Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. "That seems to be a yearly effort."

"I'm interested in adding more than one pitcher," he added. "I need to, I think, add multiple."

The Yankees saw several pitchers hit the open market after the 2018 campaign. Starters J.A. Happ, Lance Lynn, and CC Sabathia, as well as relievers David Robertson and Zach Britton, are all free agents.

Sabathia, for one, could find himself back in the Bronx. Cashman said there is mutual interest in bringing him back for an 11th season with the Yankees, according to Mark Feinsand of MLB.com.

The Yankees are also still looking to move right-hander Sonny Gray in a trade. Cashman said "a lot of teams" are showing interest, per Feinsand.

It's unknown whether bolstering pitching will stop the Yankees from going after Bryce Harper and Manny Machado, but Cashman didn't rule out spending big in the right circumstance.

"The goal is always to win a championship and to do it in a cost-effective manner," Cashman said, according to Hoch. "As I say cost-effective, we're still a strong, heavy loaded payroll. We got under the tax, but we're still one of the higher payrolls in the game, as you would expect and as it should be."

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