Yankees Trimming Long-Held Policy to Attract Free Agents

New York Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole delivers against the Minnesota Twins in the first inning of a baseball game in New York, on Aug. 21, 2021. Mary Altaffer/AP Photo

The New York Yankees are getting with the times in baseball in order to keep building the roster.

For almost 50 years, the Yankees didn’t allow facial hair—until now. Baseball players sporting beards is popular around the league, and Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner announced a policy change on Friday to permit “well-groomed beards” instead of only a clean shave.

“If I ever found out that a player we wanted to acquire to make us better, to get us a championship, did not want to be here and, if he had the ability, would not come here because of that policy—as important as it is to that generation—that would be very, very concerning. And I’m fairly convinced that that’s a real concern,” Steinbrenner told reporters on Friday.

His late father, George Steinbrenner, implemented the facial hair rule in 1976. The rule hasn’t hindered the Yankees at all for most of that time and arguably at the present moment. New York just appeared in the World Series last fall but lost out on keeping Juan Soto, who doesn’t have a beard.

Overall, the Yankees have won seven World Series crowns since 1977 but only one since 2008. New York hadn’t made a World Series since 2009 before the loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2024 Fall Classic.

“I did make the decision that the policy that was in place was outdated, and given how important it is to that generation and given that it is a norm in this world today, that it was somewhat unreasonable,” Steinbrenner said. “So I made the change.”

Steinbrenner also acknowledged that his late father would want what’s best for the Yankees. George Steinbrenner, who notably served in the military where being clean-shaven is expected, owned the team from 1973 to 2005 before his death in 2008.

“Winning was the most important thing to my father,” Hal Steinbrenner explained. “All we’re trying to do every offseason is put ourselves in the best position to get a player that we’re trying to get.

“And if something like this would detract from that, lessen our chances, I don’t know, I think he might be a little more apt to do the change that I did than people think, because it was about winning,” Steinbrenner added.

Yankee general manager Brian Cashman acknowledged it was time but that it took deliberation for an organization such as theirs to make such a move.

“It’s time. It’s not an easy decision for Hal Steinbrenner to make,” Cashman told reporters on Friday. “Like every decision he makes, he makes it with a lot of information before he ultimately gets there.”

“We’re like a gigantic naval battle cruiser. It takes a little while to turn,” he added.

Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole told reporters, via MLB.com, that he thinks “it’s appropriate” for the team to make the change. Cole has been with the Yankees since 2020, and he had a beard before during his previous stint with the Houston Astros in 2018 and 2019.

“It still embodies our look and our neatness but allows for some individual freedom and a few less razor burns,” Cole told reporters on Friday.

Cole also said the players were told there would remain a limit on facial hair. The players learned about the policy change on Friday morning.

“The only information we were offered, from Cash, was that we’re not trying to look like ‘Duck Dynasty,’” Cole said. “No diss against ‘Duck Dynasty.’ They’re grinding in the woods all the time.”

“You don’t really have another option. But that was the only clarification we got so far,” added.

Facial hair isn’t the only hair-related policy for the Yankees. The team also has a policy on hair length above the jersey collar, and that one will stay intact, neither to get lengthened or trimmed for now.