Cashman's Next Challenge: Taking a Patient Approach to Fixing the Yankees' Offense STAMFORD, Conn. - It has become a holiday tradition: on the eve of baseball's winter meetings, the man in charge of the Yankees' fluctuating roster, General Manager Brian Cashman, puts on an elf suit and rappels from the roof of the Landmark Building in Stamford, Conn. Fortunately, the conditions Sunday evening were just fine for the descent down the 22-story building. Cashman, who marked his third year pulling off the stunt as part of a holiday even in the city, breezed down the building's face in front of a sizable (and festive) holiday crowd. One challenge down, Cashman now faces another. The offensive meltdown the Yankees went through in the postseason this year will be his concern to rectify at the winter meetings, which begin Monday in Nashville. Already the Yankees have re-signed pitchers Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte and Hiroki Kuroda, so Cashman said his focus would turn to shoring up the offense. But, as usual, he said he intended to go into this week's meetings with a patient mind-set. "We don't want to get in the mentality where we have to do something," Cashman said. If you have patience and kind of walk your way through it and kind of wait for the right thing to develop, then you can act. If you try and push something, you can push your way into a mistake. The Yankees competition in the American League East appears only to be toughening. The Toronto Blue Jays have made several flashy acquisitions already this off-season. The Baltimore Orioles and Tampa Bay Rays have certainly proven themselves as pennant contenders. The Boston Red Sox likely will not be passive observers for very long. The Yankees have already lost their starting catcher (Russell Martin), right fielder (Nick Swisher) and closer (Rafael Soriano) to free agency. Their ace C. C. Sabathia and shortstop Derek Jeter are recovering from off-season surgery. Nonetheless, Cashman did not express any added urgency to acquire a big name as the Yankees have done so often in the past. "The pressure's always there," Cashman said. Our division is a nightmare. The pressure on a yearly basis is always there. The pressure comes from your fan base. We are followed worldwide and you know what your fans expect. That's what everybody here collectively is always trying to deal with. He said Rivera's return was "an important key." Having Pettitte and Kuroda back in the rotation allow Cashman to focus on replacing Swisher, Martin and possibly the free-agent outfielder Ichiro Suzuki. "He's in the marketplace and he's going to have action," Cashman said of Suzuki. That's part of the gig. Last season, the Yankees stood pat during the week but opened dialogue that eventually resulted in the trade of pitcher A. J. Burnett and the acquisition of pitcher Michael Pineda. Cashman said the goals and challenges of piecing the roster puzzles together rarely change from year to year. "It's the same old pressure," Cashman said. The names change, the teams are different, the effort and the interest in accomplishing the last team standing is always the same. With that, the bells on his elf hat began to jingle. Joining Cashman on his rappelling tour this year was the former Red Sox manager, Bobby Valentine, who resides in Stamford. White Sox General Manager Ken Williams also stopped by to watch, although he declined a harness of his own. "Maybe next year," Cashman said.