Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner blamed New York's players for the team's failure to win the World Series and defended manager Aaron Boone and general manager Brian Cashman, who is getting a new contract as he enters his 30th season in charge of baseball operations.
"I thought Boone managed a good season, especially with the pitching staff," Steinbrenner said Wednesday. "The bottom line is the players didn't live up to their end of the bargain in the playoffs."
New York has gone 17 seasons without a World Series title. That matches the Yankees' longest drought since winning their first championship in 1923, a gap between titles in 1978 and '96.
"If we don't win a championship while I'm here, I'm sure that will be a frontline story of it all and how people think of me and how a fanbase reacts," Boone said. "I understand that."
Steinbrenner spoke alongside Cashman during a joint Zoom news conference from team's spring training ballpark in Tampa, Florida, and Boone followed with a video news conference from Yankee Stadium.
New York went 93-68 and finished second in the AL East to Tampa Bay. After sweeping Boston 2-0 in an AL Wild Card Series, the Yankees were swept 3-0 by the Rays in a Division Series.
"In the end, the majority of the responsibility -- I'll say it for the fifth time -- in my mind, my opinion, lies with the position players and the inability to score on a consistent basis throughout the course of the entire season for the most part," Steinbrenner said. "Not on the shoulders of Aaron Boone does the blame lie."
Captain Aaron Judge was limited to 66 games and hit.241 with 18 homers and 41 RBIs. The three-time AL MVP was sidelined from June 1 through Sept. 7 by a fractured rib, returned for seven games, then had a season-ending calf injury.
Giancarlo Stanton's regular season ended with a calf injury on April 24.
"Look, losing Stanton and losing Judge for 80-plus percent of the season in the offense's defense was not part of the plan and it certainly had an effect," Steinbrenner said. "We just have to figure out how much of it was that."
He doesn't feel a need to publicly pressure players in the manner of his father, George Steinbrenner.
"I'm not convinced that with this team, in this day and age, that that's as big of a motivator as you think it is," Hal Steinbrenner said. "Twenty, 25 years ago, different generation, just a different scenario."
Boone finished his ninth season as manager and has one season left on a two-year contract extension agreed to in February 2025. The 53-year-old former third baseman has led New York to a 790-565 regular-season record and three first-place finishes in the AL East but a 27-30 postseason mark.
"At the end of the day, we haven't won a championship with me at the helm," he said. "Ultimately that's what has to happen to satisfy certainly myself -- that's why I'm doing this -- but to answer those questions ultimately."
Steinbrenner and the Yankees front office evaluated Boone after the season-ending loss.
"We had a weeklong conversation about Aaron Boone and was he part of the problem this year, and I don't believe he was. I think he had a good year managing-wise," Steinbrenner said. "But, yes, I would consider, of course, moving on from Aaron Boone if I thought he was a huge part of a problem."
Boone defended not calling out players publicly for mistakes.
"I know I get accused sometimes of being too positive in the media and I would say if you watch my post(game) conferences this year, there were a lot of days where I was talking about our struggles. But does that mean I'm calling individuals out in a public way?" Boone said. "There is probably a time and place for that, but generally speaking to me that's not leadership. That's me giving red meat to people that want to be upset with somebody."
Cashman, who turns 60 in July, said he and the team have agreed to a new contract and are working on minor details. He became general manager in February 1998 and is the most senior head of baseball operations in the major leagues -- San Diego's A.J. Preller, hired in August 2014, is second.
When Cashman took over from Bob Watson in 1998, it was the 15th change at GM since George Steinbrenner bought the Yankees in January 1973. Cashman has been the only GM under Hal Steinbrenner, who succeeded his father as controlling owner in November 2008.
New York has won four World Series, seven AL pennants and 15 AL East titles since Cashman became GM. He had been working under a four-year contract announced in December 2022.
"Cash is great every season," Steinbrenner said. "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."
Yankee Global Enterprises, the team's parent company, announced a $2.6 billion financing agreement in August with Apollo Sports Capital, an affiliate of Apollo Global Management. The deal included debt and equity.
"It is not a precursor to fully selling the team," Steinbrenner said. "The whole goal of the Apollo deal was to bring in capital into the company that would be there for us, to give us more financial stability for years and years to come, including the years when I'm out of here and the third generation is running the team." (AP)