SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Hal Steinbrenner didn’t say much during a Tuesday Zoom call with reporters, but three words uttered by the Yankees owner did open some eyes.
Steinbrenner said “Judge and I” twice on the call while talking about mostly unspecified “significant changes” the Yankees are going to make after missing the playoffs in 2023. Steinbrenner, of course, was referring to Aaron Judge.
“There’s gonna be some big changes,” Steinbrenner said. “But again, we’re looking at so much that there’s going to be changes some people might not consider significant, but Judge and I made because we’re doing this every day.”
It’s no secret that Judge’s influence has grown since Steinbrenner interrupted his Italian vacation to close a nine-year, $360 million deal with the slugger last December. Judge officially became the Yankees’ captain after re-signing, but he had been considered a leader in the locker room well before that. However, his new contract gave him the comfort to impact and voice his opinion on matters beyond the clubhouse in 2023.
“I’ve always felt like I was a leader on this team, you know, since 2017, 2018,” Judge told the Daily News at the end of the season. “The captain thing, that definitely does help. But I think the security of knowing you’re gonna be here for a couple years — and you have a chance to impact some things and see some things change and see some things evolve — is really what it comes down to.”
For example, Judge spoke to the team’s shot-callers about how to handle Anthony Volpe’s promotion, publicly called for organizational changes when the team was eliminated from contention, and criticized how the Yankees use and disseminate analytical information. Since the season ended, Judge has said that changes are coming, and he’s met with Steinbrenner multiple times.
Those meetings and Judge’s input were expected, but Steinbrenner almost made Judge sound like a partner — at least on some matters — when he spoke Tuesday. Some even joked about Judge having a high-ranking front office position.
It’s one thing for Judge to share his opinions, and Steinbrenner is right to listen after making such a large financial commitment. But whether a player should be making any decisions alongside an owner is up for debate, as the optics alone could create power struggles and imbalances. However, general manager Brian Cashman downplayed the situation when asked if he is comfortable with Judge’s level of access to Steinbrenner.
“Now that we’ve got 82 wins and there’s a lot of eyeballs on everything, a lot of questions being asked — understandably so — you’re getting access to, well the owner talks to one of the star players about what’s going on with the club. Or the owner talks to Gerrit Cole,” Cashman said, noting another well-paid player who meets with Steinbrenner regularly. “Well, that’s not any different than any year. Whether it was all the way back to George Steinbrenner who, if you watch documentaries and stuff, you know he relied on what Lou Piniella said or what Thurman Munson said or what Reggie Jackson said or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
“I go to our players all the time about a number of different topics and get their feedback because they’re on the front line. It’s a player’s game, and since they’re on the front line, ‘What do you got? What are you seeing? What’s the problem? What needs to be fixed? This is what we see, what do you see? Can you help me with a problem?’ So I don’t think that it’s a problem at all. And when you partner with somebody for that kind of money, he’s gonna have some seat at the table, as he should. But this is a player’s game, no doubt about it, and they’ve got some good information that they can provide. We’re not going to ignore it.”
However, Cashman sounded a tad dismissive when relaying thoughts Judge shared regarding the Yankees’ use of analytics.
On the final day of the season, Judge praised the abundance of information the Yankees offer players. However, he went on to say, “We get a lot of numbers, but I think we might be looking at the wrong ones and maybe should value some other ones that some people might see as having no value.”
Cashman followed up on those comments.
“I asked him about that, and he talked about RBIs and batting average when I talked to him,” the GM said. “I was like, ‘Hey, out of curiosity, what did [you mean]?’ They’re important, I understand. I think it just comes down to when you’re dealing with 99 wins two years ago, everybody is happy. Not happy that we got knocked out in the ALCS, but when you deal with 82 wins, a ton of injuries, some underperformance on certain aspects of the roster, and a very angry everybody — because nobody’s playing when they thought we should be playing and we all know we’re better than this — then we’re starting to figure out what’s real, what’s not real. There’s a lot of finger-pointing, a lot of acknowledgment we have to do better. And that’s that.”
The two stats Cashman mentioned are generally considered old-school, or basic stats. There are others that offer a fuller picture of individual hitters and offenses. That’s not to say that average and ribbies don’t have value or hold importance in the minds of players, but the Yankees are responsible for making sure their players know why those metrics are important or why they might correlate with a higher batting average and RBI total.
Cashman declined to say what other recommendations Judge and Cole have made, but it’s become clear the two have pull, especially the former. That may raise some eyebrows outside the organization, but Cashman insisted it’s not an issue.
“I welcome it,” he said.
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