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Hal Steinbrenner is anti-bombast, another way to say he is not his father — which anyone who has been watching his Yankee stewardship the last 15 years knows quite well.
Hal was born to one of the great public maximalists of the age and became a minimalist. He is understated by nature. He doesn’t duck attention, but he certainly does not utter every phrase with one eye on the back-page possibilities as a certain father of his might.
On Wednesday, Steinbrenner played to part by being revealingly unrevealing about plans for the Yankees this offseason. He was at a conference and spoke in generalities about “making some changes” and that “some may be more subtle than others, but I think we’ve uncovered certainly things we can do better.” On reorganization, he said of, “possibly personnel [moves]. But not necessarily personnel.”
You could hear these words and believe what you want is coming next — Hal does ambiguous as well as his father did outrageous. Steinbrenner did not respond to an email asking for clarification. Brian Cashman, reached Wednesday, said he would not yet comment about the Yankee direction.
So these bread crumbs are in the eye of the beholder. Personally, I hear “subtle” combined with back-and-forth comments that it could impact personnel or maybe not and add that to knowing — again, unlike his dad — Steinbrenner has aversion to firing employees and this sounds like a man ready to prune the bushes rather than uproot them.
Yet I also know that Steinbrenner listens to Aaron Judge and I know that the Yankee captain was dissatisfied with much that went on as the organization had its worst season since 1992. Steinbrenner while listing areas that were reviewed last week in Tampa by the organization’s top 15 baseball officials included “clubhouse culture.” That resonated because I know some players had concerns about which team employees had access to the clubhouse and to them and with what information and how it was disseminated. And if I knew it, that means Judge knew it, which means Steinbrenner now knows it, too.
Steinbrenner also said the organizational meetings “got a little dicey at times.” It suggests that internally everyone is not reading from the same textbook. There is disenchantment on how decisionmaking in every phase is reached and who has the most influence. Brian Cashman has long claimed to listen to all wings, including what is believed to be the largest pro scouting department in the majors.
But an overwhelming external belief has formed that Cashman leans heavily toward his analytic group and that the head of that faction, assistant GM Mike Fishman, carries the most clout. Steinbrenner also mentioned the involvement of his oldest nephew, Steve Swindal Jr., in having “a big part of a lot of the decisions we make.” And Swindal is most associated with the analytic group as well.
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So major restructuring could create a more touchy situation within the family. Is Steinbrenner ready to go there?
And yet can this really be just cosmetic? Steinbrenner already is resisting the mob as it is clear that he is retaining Cashman over the throaty disapproval of his most vocal fans. All indicators are that Aaron Boone is being retained as well.
So could Steinbrenner’s checklist this winter really be, say, dismissing a coach or two, changing the leadership of, for example, the international department and setting an agenda that Cashman will meet once a week with veteran baseball personnel like Omar Minaya and Brian Sabean to make sure he does not overdo the analytic thing and sell that as his response to 82-80, an offense that looked like something 1968 dragged in, continuing large injury numbers each season, a series of one botched transaction after another, etc.?
That would be minimalist as a response, after all.
In a grander fashion — though, of course, out of wide consumption — Steinbrenner has let his employees know of his dissatisfaction. But it is his way after those kinds of statements to let department heads now address the problems. So whether it is cosmetic or something more than that, Steinbrenner is empowering Cashman to absorb the words and infighting deed of last week and deliver a pathway forward.
Steinbrenner offered vagaries Wednesday about that pathway because it is his public persona. But also because it was Oct. 11. He does not have a fully formed script yet. What he does have for the first time since his dad was fully in charge in the late 1980s is a baseball operation heading in the wrong direction.
Can the minimalist do enough to provide a major course correction?
