Hal Steinbrenner talks about the state of the New York Yankees and says he’s embracing the “Evil Empire” nickname people are giving the team.
The New York Yankees are off to a hot start in spring training, having lost only one game so far. Hal Steinbrenner, who is entering his 10th season as the Yankees managing general partner, talked about the state of the Yankees recently.
After the acquisition of Giancarlo Stanton, the Yankees have been called baseball’s “Evil Empire” and Steinbrenner is embracing the Dark Side.
“Nobody loves ‘Star Wars’ more than me,” he said, per David Lennon of Newsday. “I grew up with it. Remember seeing it in ’77 in the theaters.I don’t really ponder that [nickname] too much. But I will tell you one thing: It means you’re relevant again, if people are starting up with that stuff again. That people are concerned about us.”
Another move the Yankees made in the offseason was hiring Aaron Boone as their manager, replacing Joe Girardi. Steinbrenner said that Boone showed that he has a lot of wisdom in his interviews with the team and believes Boone is the right choice to be the Yankees manager.
“Analytically, he was as good as anybody and dealing with leadership and potential issues in the clubhouse and how to handle staff, medicals—he just excelled,” Steinbrenner said of Boone, per Pete Caldera of NorthJersey.com.
Steinbrenner also talked about the Yankees interest in available top free agents.
“We’re never going to stop looking. This will be happening all March. You never have enough pitching, right? You’re going to have injuries. But I think we’ve got a pretty solid team as is,” he said. “But if Cash picks up the phone and calls me and says, ‘What do you think of this?’’ I’ll say look into it. Get pro scouting, get analytics, get everybody’s opinion and we’ll talk about it.’ Right now, things are fairly quiet.’’
He added, “If you’ve got young players that deserve a chance, then my philosophy is give them a chance and let’s see. Now you’re not going to have a great young player for every position, so you’re going to be active in the free-agent market, and we always will be. But if you’ve got players who are ready, keeping them at Triple-A because you’d rather take a more proven option isn’t always necessarily what we’re going to do.”
The Yankees recently named Alex Rodriguez as a special adviser. Hal said that he has been impressed with how Rodriguez has bonded with the young players and they will see how much A-Rod likes his role and how everything goes.
The state of the Yankees is currently strong, like the dark side of the force. Yankee fans should be excited about the 2018 season.
