Early one morning, Brian Cashman was walking from his suite to another location in the hotel. Or maybe it was afternoon, or late at night. It hardly mattered.

The lobby, restaurants and bars were packed with fans, scouts, managers, minor league officials, reporters, executives and agents, a gigantic Christmas tree in the center of it all.

They talked among themselves, but their eyes darted to and fro, looking for someone perhaps more useful to talk to — someone like Cashman. Some of them were there to shake him down for his Yankees millions. Some were looking for a job, an autograph, a shred of information.

“You can’t even walk across the lobby anymore,” Cashman said recently, reflecting on experiences like that one. “It takes forever. Now, more and more, you just sit in the suite and do your business in there.”