In a seismic development, the Yankees are altering their long-standing and often-derided facial hair policy.
The team made the announcement Friday morning in a statement from managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner.
The crux of it?
Players will now be allowed to have "well-groomed" beards.
Here's Steinbrenner's full statement:
Statement from Yankees Managing General Partner Hal Steinbrenner on the alteration of Yankees facial hair policy: pic.twitter.com/UdEuAg3gZy
ā New York Yankees (@Yankees) February 21, 2025
The Yankees' policy, which forbade players from having beards, was enacted in 1976 after then-owner George Steinbrenner was bothered by a handful of players whose appearance he found to be unkempt.
Just a few hours after releasing the team statement, Steinbrenner held a press conference in Tampa, calling the decades-old beard policy "outdated" and "somewhat unreasonable."
"[Beards are] a part of who these younger men are. It's a part of their character, a part of their persona," Steinbrenner said. "Do I totally relate to that? It's difficult for me. I'm an older guy who's never had a beard in his life. It's a very important thing to them. They feel it defines their character. It's also the norm in this country...
"The most important thing was to sit down, face to face, with several of our players and senior staff... I did all of that Monday... There were a lot of things told to me that resonated. There were some things told to me that were concerning, even if they happened to be more of a hypothetical in nature..."
The most-obvious hypothetical that Steinbrenner alluded to was the policy working against their advantage in the simplest recruitment stage. Steinbrenner couldn't accept the possibility of players expressing an unwillingness to play in the Bronx solely due to facial hair rules.
"I don't like addressing hypotheticals, but I'm going to break my own rules today," Steinbrenner said. "If I ever found out that a player we wanted to acquire to make us better, to get us a championship, didn't want to be here -- and if he had the ability, wouldn't come here -- because of that policy, that would be very, very concerning. I'm fairly convinced that's a real concern."
The archaic rule, which had been derided for decades -- including on an episode of The Simpsons where Mr. Burns keeps yelling at Don Mattingly about sideburns that aren't even there -- meant that any player who signed with or was traded to the Yanks had to immediately shave his beard.
That included new closer Devin Williams, who shaved his beard before spring training but can be seen with a bit of a beard in recent photos from camp.
"There's been so much change in the game, I think this is a little bit of an evolution and a nudge on our part to make an adjustment also," Yankees general manager Brian Cashman explained alongside Steinbrenner. "It's a real thing. Whether it's the ultimate end-all, be-all preventable thing, I can't say. We've had a lot of great people that've come here to put that uniform on and ultimately comply.
"Everybody here is willing to comply. That's the great thing. They understand, they have a platform to share and discuss. But even in today's iteration of our locker room, people would express, 'It's not what I want, it's not my preference, but I'll honor the rules of the land.'"
With the no-beard policy now lifted, players can now grow their beards out to the "well-groomed" style the Yanks now require.
