Hal Steinbrenner says Yankees' offseason meetings got 'heated at times'

Yankees baseball operations personnel last week conducted three days of wide-ranging eight-hour meetings in Tampa that managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner told Newsday got “heated at times.”

“I addressed the group before the meetings started and I told them, ‘I want you to analyze and criticize everything we do here if you feel like you need to,’ ” Steinbrenner said on Wednesday after appearing at Sportico’s “Invest in Sports” conference in midtown Manhattan.

“’I want you respectfully to challenge each other and criticize each other, a check-your-ego-at-the-door kind of thing. Be prepared to be critiqued on the things you might be doing or not doing.

“It was very respectful, but it did get heated at times, and that’s good as long as some constructive things come out of that, and I think they will.”

Steinbrenner told Newsday he removed himself from the meetings after setting the initial tone for fear of “inhibiting people from saying everything they wanted to say, and everything they wanted to say got said, so I think I made the right decision.

“It was a spirited debate. When I say ‘heated,’ I mean raised voices, sure, but that’s a healthy thing, as long as it’s done respectfully, and it was.”

Steinbrenner said about 15 people participated, led by general manager Brian Cashman and including manager Aaron Boone. He said two of his nephews who are involved in Yankees management also were present, “so the family was well represented.”

Steinbrenner said “a hundred” topics were covered, and by Friday afternoon the group was “exhausted.” The agenda included everything from analytics to weight room practices to clubhouse culture and beyond.

One of the key topics was communication between the major-league coaches and player development group.

“We need to make sure when young kids get up to the major leagues, everybody’s communicating with each other,” Steinbrenner told Newsday, “because there’s a lot of reports and documentation that we do about these kids as they’re coming up through the system and coaches need to be aware of all that.

“Communication has to be good. It’s one thing we’re taking a serious look at. There is communication, but it can always be better, probably in any organization.”

Steinbrenner said there would be changes made, some more subtle than others.

During a panel discussion that included team president Randy Levine before speaking to Newsday, Steinbrenner said he met with team captain Aaron Judge at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday and covered some of the topics that came out of the Tampa meetings.

“To have a captain that I can really talk to that is a true leader of the team and respected by young players, veterans, everybody, it’s a benefit, because you have to get their perspective,” Steinbrenner said. “It’s good to have that sounding board. Gerrit Cole, same thing.”

Judge said last month that he hoped to be a part of these meetings.

“I’ve got some ideas,” Judge said. “But it’s going to take all of us. It’s going to be talking with everybody in the organization, all the way down through the minor-league stuff, all the way up to the top. There’s a lot of stuff we have to work on to improve, but there’s a lot of bright spots that we’ve seen with these young guys coming up, and this is the time to build on that and start building that next foundation.”

On other matters ...

-- Steinbrenner was asked during the panel discussion whether the Steinbrenners plan to keep the team in the family, and he reiterated there are no plans to sell, with three of his nephews and a niece now involved in the organization.

-- Steinbrenner said he favors the use of electronic umpiring for balls and strikes currently being tested in the minor leagues.

-- Levine expressed frustration over some attendance laggards in the major leagues, including both Florida franchises. He said big-market teams and the commissioner had done their parts to help. “Now it’s on individual teams,” he said. “Instead of complaining and whining, ‘We need more money,’ you have to take some responsibility.”

By Neil Best

neil.best@newsday.com@sportswatch

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.