As Spring Training continues, here are four things to keep an eye on heading into the weekend:
1. Yankees alter facial hair policy:
For more than half a century, the Yankees have adhered to a strict facial hair policy barring their players from sporting beards. The policy dates back to 1973, when late owner George Steinbrenner disapproved of the shaggy hair and facial hair of several players on Opening Day — Thurman Munson, Sparky Lyle and Bobby Murcer among them. Each offseason, there’s an air of almost novelty when a typically bearded player signs with the Yankees and fans wonder how he’ll look reporting to camp clean-shaven. (Or, alternatively, when a longtime Yankee departs and promptly grows a beard, as Gleyber Torres has done in his new Detroit environs.) Many Yankees have still donned mustaches over the years, with examples ranging from Don Mattingly to Jason Giambi to 2024 Yankees like Nestor Cortes and Austin Wells. Newly signed Max Fried arrived in camp with a prominent mustache on display last week.
As of this morning, managing partner Hal Steinbrenner has had a change of heart. He issued the following statement:
“In recent weeks I have spoken to a large number of former and current Yankees — spanning several eras — to elicit their perspectives on our longstanding facial hair and grooming policy, and I appreciate their earnest and varied feedback. These most recent conversations are an extension of ongoing internal dialogue that dates back several years. Ultimately the final decision rests with me, and after great consideration, we will be amending our expectations to allow our players and uniformed personnel to have well-groomed beards moving forward. It is the appropriate time to move beyond the familiar comfort of our former policy.”
It doesn’t appear that the Yankees will embrace a full Brandon Marsh or peak “Captain Caveman” Johnny Damon look anytime soon, but for the first time in a generation, there’ll be some beards sprouting up in camp. Early returns on a quick poll from Yankees beat writer Bryan Hoch suggests that the move is overwhelmingly popular among fans, with roughly 80% of respondents approving of the change.
2. Spring Training games:
The first Spring Training game of the year was held yesterday between the Cubs and the Dodgers, and throughout the weekend the rest of the league will get in on the action as well. Notable starters who have been announced for this weekend’s slate of games include Yankees righty Marcus Stroman and Dodgers righty Tony Gonsolin, both of whom are fighting for a rotation spot this spring. Diamondbacks and Red Sox fans will get their first glimpse of offseason additions Corbin Burnes and Garrett Crochet pitching for their new organizations. Marlins right-hander Sandy Alcantara will be making his first pitching appearance since undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2023. Fans and clubs will also be getting their first taste of the automatic ball-strike system that MLB is testing this spring, which could be implemented in the majors as soon as next year.
3. Miller in concussion protocol:
Yesterday’s game between the Dodgers and the Cubs featured a scary moment where right-hander Bobby Miller was struck with a 106mph line drive off the bat of Michael Busch. The comebacker struck Miller in the head, though after briefly hitting the ground the 25-year-old managed to walk off the field under his own power. Miller later posted on social media to assure fans that he was doing well after the incident, and USA Today’s Bob Nightengale relayed that the righty remains in MLB’s concussion protocol. Miller, Gonsolin and Dustin May are among the pitchers hoping to win the final rotation spot in Los Angeles this spring, though on-the-field considerations are a very, very distant second to the player’s general well-being in frightening situations such as this.
4. Will Quintana find the right deal?
After the Pirates signed southpaw Andrew Heaney to deepen their rotation mix yesterday, reporting indicated that Pittsburgh actually went to Jose Quintana first in hopes of working out a reunion. The veteran southpaw was reportedly offered a guarantee larger than the $5.25MM Heaney landed from the Pirates, but when Quintana declined the offer, the Bucs pivoted to bring Heaney into the fold. With Heaney off the market, Quintana is now the clear best left-handed starter still available and arguably the best overall starter left on the market. With the majority of teams seemingly satisfied with their starting depth as things stand, however, will he be able to find the deal he’s looking for?
About time they did away with that stupid facial hair policy
They didn’t, they amended it. I don’t think it was stupid tbh. There’s no reason a ball club like the Yankees who’s always presented themselves as prestigious wouldn’t want their players presenting themselves in a classy way. This works perfectly in that line of thinking, but expands for a modern sensibility.
While I get the idea of a look of professionalism to represent the organization it should’ve always been you’re allowed to have a beard just keep it under control. Like you can have a beard and look professional. By having it all or nothing it probably screwed us out of signing a couple of players. Which is a great way to shoot yourself in the foot
Doubtful it ultimately made a big difference in signing anyone. If a Caveman could do it, anyone could. Money>facial hair.
I think Hal did the right thing in respecting his father’s policy for a good number of years after his passing and as he said it’s been an ongoing conversation for awhile. The well groomed beard style more of a modern era thing anyway tbh.
It’s a perfect time all around imo.
I am just happy that it was amended. I feel like it allows the players to be more themselves in the dugout.
I wish all the teams would require the players to have well groomed beards. Some of them look terrible, like Brandon Marsh.
Well that’s the thing right? They look like homeless when some don’t groom their faces properly. This is a sport follow by millions including children for Pete’s sakes…
teamspirit
As least their long hair should look like it has been washed occasionally
Charlie Blackmon looks like a sack full of A holes.
Some people think differently than you. I know it is shocking.
Salzilla…I think some of your perspective is “beardist.”
I kid…..but whether a beard is classy or not is subject to the times.
Children can’t grow beards.
So, children should be shielded from bearded people? I guess we’re canceling Santa
While we’re at it-when will cows start covering up those nipples? My kids have to see those when driving by a dairy.
They should wear pants for Pete’s (the cow pants
For Pete’s (The cow pants maker) sake
I guess you didn’t realize how dumb they looked with all those porn mustaches.
Can’t be hating on people that work second jobs
I love the lip warmers!
Maybe they can class their way into better fielding and base running?
Dumb troll comment for zero reason.
He’s a Marlins fan trolling is all he has to look forward to this year
5th inning, game 5.
Well said Salzilla. I have always appreciated the fact that they demanded the right to have players appear to be professional in their appearance, and yet certainly they could have amended the beard policy earlier on as well to be more updated.
I wish that my Phils adopted something to this effect, as a few of the guys just look like fools with their long, stringy hair and caveman beards. A professional appearance is a requirement for many corporations, and given the public facing nature of the job in baseball there is certainly some precedent for some minimal grooming standards
Yeah but they’re basically all wearing pajamas too so I think it’s okay to just let it be.
Of course it was stupid and based on nothing but dipwad racist George Steinbrenner being too stupid to be able to know anyone’s name. A ridiculous bs policy tied to the old white man way of thinking and his stupid oh this is the way we did in my racist military academy.
@beernbaseballguy. Stupid hair? The visible hair is a non-living structure once it emerges from the scalp, and therefore lacks an “intelligence” that some psychologists have afforded to the living cells beneath the skin (the hair follicle), which have never been affected by the NY Yankee policy. Thus the external hair that you see, being dead, has no intellect to judge as smart vs. stupid.
I agree that the modern professional business sensibility allows for well groomed beards. But I have a round face and have had a goatee all my adult life. I’d look like a man-baby clean shaven. But I’d have shaved in a heart beat to be with the Yankees. Its not just a dream. It was a potentiality to consider as a professional.
Yankees do what Yankees do.
It’s not really stupid as a team or company to not allow your players/employees to look like the same homeless people they kick out of their parking lot encampments on game days…
Yes, we definitely need less stupid facial hair.
Ehh. Don’t care much either way. Always struck me as an obsession by non-Yankee fans.
The Yankees facial hair policy dates back to a time when long hair, beards and mustaches were part of the radical element. That’s why George didn’t think it fit the Yankees image. Nowadays, a beard is as milquetoast as it comes with bearded 20-somethings ordering their soy milk and avocado toast. It’s fine they changed it, but never had an issue with it as part of the Yankee brand. Hal was simply honoring his father’s legacy but decided it’s time to move on.
Now, with the VP of the United States and the Yankees embracing beards, they’re about to go out of style as representing establishment!
You dishonor the freak flag, my friend. There are beards, such as the ones you describe the current VP as having, and then there are real beards, the ones that are not of your average Joe.
Devin Williams is like, “bruh…. You couldn’t make this decision last week?!” lol…
Beards!!!!! I’ve always thought a well groomed beard could work and still keep up the classy look. Good on Hal for finally doing it! This might be the biggest transaction of the season!
A well-groomed beard looks professional just as much as a clean-shaven look. Some of these guys look terrible without a beard in all honesty. Verdugo looked like he was a 12-year-old boy and Devin doesn’t look good without his beard. Honestly this is a very solid compromise.
I always thought Brian McCann looked “off” when he was clean shaven on the Yankees.
A lot of other guys too, but many also clearly skirted the policy’s limitations and details with regular stubble beards that were basically short but full beards, like Sabathia, amongst others.
Thin line between a short but full beard and an aggressive five o’clock shadow…
Cutch didn’t look like himself without the beard either. Wonder how many players didn’t sign with the Yankees for that reason.
Zero chance that any professional would make that a reason.
True, but a lot of guys very pointedly grow a heavy beard after they move on from the Yankees and there are absolutely a handful of guys who’ve said publicly or would acknowledge privately that they signed with other clubs because the money wasn’t significantly different and they didn’t have to deal with the head hair/facial hair policies of the Yankees.
wvpirate I’m only aware of two. David Price (who wasn’t a FA when he said it) and Brian Wilson (Thank God for the facial hair policy on that one).
I would 100% have it put into my contract that I could not be traded to any club that had this rule or any like it. Especially if I was already as financially stable as most of these guys.. I don’t appreciate anyone trying to control me over something that would have zero impact on my job performance. I could live with them telling me I had to lose weight or something to that effect because that would impact job performance. But even a scraggly beard has no impact.
There was another pitcher a few years back as well but I can’t remember who it was. Dallas Keuchel maybe? It was sometime in the late 2010s.
Acoss – Dugie looked bad with and without a beard.
Without it he looks like a cocky teenage punk, and when he had a beard it was horrendous.
I blame Gomes, Napoli and the rest of the 2013 Red Sox Bearded Brothers for starting the beard trend.
Welcome to the 19th century… where professional looking beards are the norm.
The 20% that didn’t approve of the facial hair change probably all have one foot on the grave
That 20% drives 10mph under the speed limit in the left hand lane and buys $50 worth of scratch off lottery tickets at the gas station every morning at 7am
And leave fake tips with Bible verses after getting the early special at Golden Corral.
“Back in my day we walked to school at 530am every day in the snow 10 miles barefoot and we didn’t have those fancy backpacks!”
Haha and uphill both ways.
Better than two feet in the loony bin.
What if Judge grows a beard now! Will look weird lol!
I have a sneaking suspicion Judge is the type to go clean shaven-ish no matter what, policy or no policy. But we might see him with more stubble now and then.
I think back to guys like CC Sabathia, even Roger Clemens and yet others whose five o’clock shadows and 2+ days of stubble were effectively beards already and how the Yankees really got wishy washy on the no facial policy up to the point of not being able to pretend a guy didn’t have a beard or shaggy hair- and with this “well groomed” caveat what that will actually look like.
Max Fried had been growing his beard for 31 years.
He’s been seen with a beard in the offseason before so it’s possible. It would be pretty funny if the entire team showed up with a beard on opening day
I hope not. I’m a certified Yankees Hater For Life, but I can’t deny that clean-shaven Judge is incredibly handsome.
“Yankees Hater For Life” Honestly, I can tell why you loved the Boone extension
I’m just a Boston guy, it’s not that deep. Having the rivalry is fun!
Absolutely nuts that the Yankees facial hair policy has both taken this long to be amended to comport with reality and that it’s finally happened.
I wonder who will embrace it as they personally prefer to and who will maintain a strict clean shaven appearance for the sake of tradition or personal preference.
Also wonder how this will impact free agent decisions going forward, with many guys opting to not sign with the Yankees because they wanted to keep a goatee or a beard or shaggier top hair… but now?
Should be interesting and surreal.
Boone extension and hair policy amended. Good couple days for Yankee fans.
How is it good? He screwed up two world series games snd still gets an extension. All this means is that the Yankees will have to wait until 2028 to win a world series.
I’m ambivalent when it comes to Boone. I think that there’s equal chance that someone else would do better or worse. The clubhouse seems to like him and like it or not as a fan, that’s carries more weight in today’s game. I am also under no illusion that the game is managed by “gut” decisions as they were in the past. Lineups, strategy and in game decisions are managed by a plurality of personnel. Changing a manager in today’s game only drastically affects one thing, the relationship with the players.
This is a disgrace. The Yankees are about tradition, discipline, and professionalism. You put on those pinstripes, you represent something bigger than yourself. Beards? What’s next—long hair, untucked jerseys, and sunglasses in the dugout? George didn’t build this franchise on facial hair and free-spirited hippie nonsense. He built it on winning. If you don’t like it, go play somewhere else.
These young whippersnappers have it good! Back in my day, not even a well-groomed mustache was allowed, I had to be totally clean-shaven! Now, where’s my cane?!
Yeah,get off my lawn!!!
I think it’s beyond strange when a man concerns himself with the physical appearance of other men.
Try attending a job interview in your pajamas and slippers. Sure, you’ll get an interview but not the job.
Happens all the time and the people get the job. Did you think people actually dressed up for their virtual interviews?
You are talking over his head. He still used dial up on a rotary phone.
Or women.
Look at the Yankees trying to be a slightly less boring team
“ Yankees alter facial hair policy”
Only hard hitting news from MLB TR
Now they really are the dirty Yankees.
“An air of almost novelty”… funny. Where exactly does that cross over.
The mountain man Johnny Damon shaved when he signed with the Yankees.
Mattingly – I told you to shave those sideburns!
Mr Burns still mad about Mattingly’s sideburns
Legend has it that Mattingly voluntarily lasered off his facial hair upon Burns’ request and he still got benched for his shaggy dog facial hair….
I remember that whole mullet “incident” too hahaha
Hope Miller is ok. That was scary.
It’s a great Friday when I can have a game on at 10 and another at noon while I work.
I also miss the old clean-shaven days but times change & I think Hal is doing the right thing. The “well groomed beard” concept will still manage to set the Yankees apart from the other teams, though to a lesser extent.
But honestly, maybe its just me but who th’hay wants to have a ton of facial hair while playing baseball in 90 degrees & humid weather?
Nobody under 60 is upset by this. About time!
Ok, Cashman
I don’t imagine many over 60 are either. You don’t have to be over 60 to know that facial hair fashions come and go. Those gnarly beards some players like to wear now will look dopey soon enough.
you have taken a survey of everyone under 60 that fast? impressive
Okay with the exception of you I guess. If your whole identity is the fact that you shave then you need a better identity. Plenty of other ways to encourage discipline and promote unity than razor bumps on your face.
Such a snappy comeback, without any snap at all.
Wasn’t for you but if you drop something on the ground the owner will pick it up. Sorry you can’t grow a good beard brother my condolences.
Uh, what?
At the risk of not making a facial hair comment, I wish Bobby Miller well.
What’s next? Names on the back of the jerseys? Agree or disagree with the policy, it was one of the things that made the Yankees the Yankees.
Well, you gotta admit, some.of thgose.l guys look pretty disgusting. And I guarantee, they themselves will look back at the picture and say to themselves, “Didn’t I look stupid. What was I thinking…..?”
Sure leave out Matt Carpenter because he once played for the Cardinals
…..even though he literally was nicknamed Matty Mustache.
Good. That Yankees no-facial hair policy was dumb and antiquated. If you are a good player who helps win ballgames, what you grow on your face is unimportant.
As a Yankee fan, I’m not a fan of this change. I have always liked how the policy forced guys who want to display their personality (the celebrity-obsessed types) to perform. The only way to stand out on the team is you have to perform. Then, who cares if you have a beard or not.
I think they will still try to perform.
Let em have the beard they want, it’s their body. Hire people of character and you won’t worry about this silly stuff.
Mets could grab Quintana for 10m/1 year probably. They should, it’d improve on Blackburn and Canning and maybe even Montas.
About time this policy was changed, it was very outdated and racist towards Muslims and Sikhs who make up 2/5 most popular religions in the world
Seems amazing to me that some fans get riled up about facial hair in this era and yet are ok with the bat flip / celly antics, which also fly in the face of ‘tradition’. I’m an old guy but see that it’s a new day. Let them play and enjoy the game.
I think Quintana was holding out hope the Mets would call and that’s why he turned down the Pirates offer. At this point it may have been the best offer he’ll get and now he’ll have to wait for either a team to decide one more starter wouldn’t hurt or wait for an injury to happen somewhere
For the first time in our generation*
For the first time in four generations*
One of those sentences would be accurate
The Oakland A’s of 1972-74 were a big promoter of facial hair while the Yankees and Reds of those days were not. It worked out well for the A’s with 3 consecutive World Series titles.
And now the city of Jokeland has no team and the Yankees are still the team with the most titles.
Sampson approves. Delilah, not so much.
It worked out well for the Reds and Yankees too, during the rest of the 1970s.
Busch has a helluva backhand!
Disappointing to hear Quintana turned down Pirates offer. He was a perfect fit for PNC Park.
I do not myself, as was ridiculously stated above , only drive under 20 mph or buy lottery tickets . I assume this was made as a snide remark against seniors. Well i am no senior and I always thought the grooming rules the Yankees had in place were ok. It set the team apart from the rest and what exactly is wrong with any organization wanting its employees to project an image of class. And I understand fully that beards , tattoos , piercings ,are in vogue now and it is taboo to seem to conform to anything remotely related to a rule. It is a major crime to risk hurting anyones feelings or their beloved freedom of personal expression. Cupcakes
Yeah, that remark was funny, in the arrogant and ignorant way a lot of people roll with now. The most amusing part comes from the fashion slaves who think they are being original when in reality they are simply conforming to today’s arbitrary style trends. I really have to LOL at these comments when I remember the scraggly beard and hairstyle I had back in the Bad Hair Decade (the ’70s). It would be total bruh fashion if I had it today. But clearly I am too old to get how original this is as a fashion statement! Hah hah.
Yankees should allow their players to be hairbags and obese, to be similar to their fans.
Hardly just Yankee fans who are obese in America. Close to 50% of population according to the data. Drive thru nation
Yankees to sign Rollie Fingers.
When “or” begins the sentence, it shouldn’t have a comma after it.