New York Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner didn't ingratiate himself to his fanbase last June when he said he couldn't understand why they were frustrated with the team as they sat in last place in the AL East. As it turns out, the fans were right to be skeptical, as they finished 82-80 on the year and missed out on the postseason for the first time since 2016.
Usually, changes come when a team like the Yankees are expected to contend for a World Series, and they miss out on the playoffs completely. Instead, they heard minimal this offseason from Steinbrenner, besides potential personnel changes being made (but not necessarily what fans would consider huge) and new sleep rooms and dining areas in the team clubhouse. Yay?
Fans don't expect to hear much from Steinbrenner, general manager Brian Cashman, and manager Aaron Boone, as they have a heavy public relations approach to what they say, which is a lot of words with very little substance or even meaning. But, they held out hope on Tuesday when Steinbrenner met with reporters through Zoom calls.
To the shock of no Yankee fan, not much was said that would instill confidence that the team would turn things around next season.
Yankees fans infuriated by Hal Steinbrenner's press conference after horrendous season
When asked about the tough questions the team asked this offseason, one was Boone as manager. Steinbrenner said that he believes he's a good manager, but he asked current players, former players like Andy Pettite and Nick Swisher, and front office members Omar Minaya and Brian Sabean, and all said the same. So, he's back for next season.
For fans who are not crazy about Boone's managerial style and their belief that he follows the analytics information like "a puppet," Steinbrenner says that's "just not true." That doesn't exactly instill much confidence either if the decisions that Boone has made were from his gut and backfired.
Steinbrenner stressed that run production was their biggest problem last year. Duh. When asked about changes, the team owner brought up that Boone believes they should bunt more.
One of the other big areas of concern from fans was how their lack of trades and signings in recent years backfired. Steinbrenner did agree that some of their moves didn't pan out, but cited ones that did work, such as Clay Holmes, Wandy Peralta, and Jose Trevino.
Here are some other things that Steinbrenner brought up in the press conference:
- Changes could come, but not significant ones that fans will particularly think of, and wouldn't provide details as to what they could be
- The audit by the outside analytics company, Zelus Analytics, isn't really an audit and will instead show the team how they do analytics, and it will last a year.
- Yankees' fans' criticism of their analytics department is "not justified."
- Teams shouldn't need to spend $300 million to win, and they are going to go with a younger approach.
- Steinbrenner doesn't believe the training staff and strength and conditioning coaches are at fault for their numerous injuries this past season.
Now, let's look at some Twitter reactions from Yankees fans after they listened to what Steinbrenner had to say and what he wouldn't divulge in.
As you can see from this select amount of tweets, Steinbrenner will have to do a lot to turn the frustrated fan around and to get them to buy into what they're selling. There's obviously the opportunity for them to not attend games as frequently, but Yankee Stadium is a tourist attraction and not as easy to do as it is for Giants and Jets fans to not attend games at MetLife Stadium in recent years when the teams are atrocious and eliminated from playoff contention in October.
The team owner stressed that last season was "awful," and threw the vague "everything is on the table when it comes to free agents," but didn't provide much as to what changes are going to be made besides bunting and looking at how an outside analytics company does their analytics. Instead, it looks like they are going to run it back with the same regime with minimal changes (as of now). Unless the Yankees land the proverbial big fish in the offseason (i.e. Shohei Ohtani or Juan Soto), there's not a lot for fans to confidently say, "I can't wait to see how the team plays in 2024."
