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Hal Steinbrenner rips Yankees' 'detrimental' offense, backs Brian Cashman and Aaron Boone again

Gary Phillips, New York Daily News on

Published in Baseball

NEW YORK — With the Yankees fresh off another embarrassing ALDS loss and in the midst of a 17-year title drought, Hal Steinbrenner was asked if he’s sick of having to explain his club’s early postseason exits year after year on Wednesday.

Unsurprisingly, the owner, speaking in Tampa and on Zoom — opposed to from the Bronx for an in-person presser — said yes, he is. The son of George had hoped to have “multiple championships” since the Yankees’ last in 2009, but that hasn’t materialized.

Some fans have blamed manager Aaron Boone, often panned for being too player-friendly but returning for his 10th season on an expiring contract, for that. Others have taken issue with Brian Cashman’s roster building and allocation of hefty funds, but the general manager is in agreement on a new deal after 29 years at the helm.

Steinbrenner has heard the complaints about his head honchos, and the critiques directed his way as he continues to favor stability over change. But as far as he’s concerned, it’s the Yankees’ offense that bears responsibility for this season’s shortcomings.

He said the unit, which scored just five runs while the Rays swept the ALDS, “really was detrimental to accomplishing numerous things, including the ultimate goal of winning a championship, and we’re gonna be looking into it.” Steinbrenner also pinned the Yankees’ inability to snatch the American League East crown from Tampa on the group.

“As we do every year, we’re gonna look at everything again,” Steinbrenner added. “I believe we absolutely had a team that was capable of winning a championship. Now, I was disappointed, quite frankly, with the offense throughout the course of the year as a whole, even though there were some bright spots. Ben Rice had a great year, etc. As a whole, they were very inconsistent when it came to run scoring, and they were inconsistent for long periods of time. That made it difficult to catch the Rays and win the division. And as we all know, winning the division is a big deal in this playoff format.

“That is certainly one part of the organization and the team that I’m going to be looking at from top to bottom.”

Steinbrenner went on to say that the Yankees are “definitely” going to take a look at their coaching staff, which includes three hitting instructors at the major league level. James Rowson is the lead hitting coach, and there’s also assistants Casey Dykes and Jake Hirst.

The trio oversaw an offense that finished 10th in runs scored (739), 11th in OPS (.720), 14th in wRC+ (101) and 27th in K% (24.7%) during the regular season. The Bombers’ bats also boasted one of the worst offenses in baseball while Aaron Judge was sidelined with a fractured rib from June 2 through Sept. 7, and they flailed once again in the ALDS with the back-to-back MVP missing the postseason with a calf strain.

The Yankees also didn’t have Giancarlo Stanton between April 24 and the playoffs, and Cody Bellinger and Trent Grisham missed chunks of time. Rice was the only member of the Opening Day lineup who avoided the injured list.

Asked specifically if Rowson is returning, Steinbrenner said those discussions haven’t begun yet. Boone was also asked if Rowson is coming back and if there would be changes to the hitting staff.

The skipper didn’t answer directly, but he did give Rowson a vote of confidence.

“We have a number of coaches that are on expiring contracts. Some that are coming back,” Boone said from the podium at Yankee Stadium. “I think we have a great coaching staff. I think James leads a great hitting group. I’ve been really impressed with the culture that he’s created year in and year out over the last few seasons, so there’s a lot of reasons that go into why there’s underperformance in certain areas of the club, and you try and address those all as best you can and saddle back up and take your shot at it next year. So I know those are all conversations that have to happen within the organization.”

In addition to potential coaching changes, the Yankees will surely have new hitters on their roster next season.

 

Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Grisham, who regressed after career years — just about every Yankees hitter not named Rice dropped off in 2026 — are going to be free agents and aren’t expected back. Platoon pieces Paul Goldschmidt and Amed Rosario are also headed for the open market, and the Yankees have additional needs at third base and catcher.

As Cashman, seated next to Steinbrenner, said, “[Boone] will have more choices as we move forward now.”

Steinbrenner also mentioned looking at the Yankees’ hitting philosophies.

One thing they may want to ask is why their hitters, generally speaking, are less receptive to analytics and data than their pitchers.

That doesn’t apply to every hitter — Rice, for example, leaves no stone unturned — but the Yankees have had tremendous success using data and analytics to get the most out of their arms, who are consistently able to articulate what information is helping them. Meanwhile, a handful of their key position players, including Chisholm, Grisham, Judge and Ryan McMahon, have made it known that they’re not as into analytics.

Still, Boone pushed back on that characterization on Wednesday, stating that there is buy-in but noting that there is more information available to pitchers.

“Hitting’s been that moving target,” Boone said. “As a sport, we see that. Like offenses are challenged now probably more than I’ve ever seen in my lifetime, and I think it has to do with just the advancements of pitching and how tech and analytics and all that have probably favored the pitcher more than hitters.”

While Steinbrenner spent a great deal of time lambasting an offense that is sure to get a makeover in some form or another, he also used Wednesday’s Zoom to stand behind his stalwarts, Cashman and Boone.

It was a spiel Steinbrenner has delivered before, as these postmortem pressers and ringless autopsies have become an annual tradition under the stewardship of the three men.

But Steinbrenner, far less inclined to sign a pink slip than his father was, swears they are not at fault after the Yankees’ latest playoff flop.

“Look, Cash is great every season,” he said. “I mean, I think the roster he put together, the team that we rolled out of spring training with, was as good as any in baseball, in my opinion. We had a lot of bumps and bruises along the way, but the team was fantastic, and it was a world championship caliber team.

“I thought Boone managed a good season, especially with the pitching staff. We had a lot of additions and subtractions in the rotation throughout the course of the season. Our bullpen was absolutely exhausted by the end of the season. He got through all that, and he got us to the playoffs, and the bottom line is, the players didn’t live up to their end of the bargain in the playoffs.”

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©2026 New York Daily News. Visit nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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