Hal Steinbrenner, Aaron Judge Converse on Yankees-Related Issues
The boss and the superstar have a tight relationship.
Team owner Hal Steinbrenner has been consulting with Aaron Judge about Yankees-related issues.
These team-related issues include renovations to the Yankees' spring training facility. Steinbrenner also picked Judge's brain about top prospect Anthony Volpe recently as well.
"I've heard from other players, including Aaron Judge, that [Volpe] conducts himself in a very professional way for somebody his age," Steinbrenner said Wednesday morning, "and that's good, because he's going to need all of that, to play where we play."
Judge, of course, turned down the Yankees' $213.5 million extension offer prior to last season. He went on to have a historic campaign, in which he broke the American League home run record with 62 taters. This year, Steinbrenner got directly involved in Judge's contract negotiations, which led to a nine-year, $360 million contract. He also named Judge the first team captain since Derek Jeter.
"Judge and I have a good relationship," Steinbrenner said. "I asked him about a lot of things. We're getting ready to look at some renovations of [the spring training] stadium, he's involved with that. Yes, I ask him about different players."
The Yankees have been bitten by the injury bug in Spring Training, losing Carlos Rodon (forearm strain), Harrison Bader (oblique strain) and Jose Trevino (wrist).
Steinbrenner addressed the team's injury issues with a different take.
"I guess I could be glass half-full and say 'Get them out of the way now' rather than deal with what we had last year, in July and even August ... That was a bad case scenario. I don't want to do that again," Steinbrenner said.
"For the first half of the year last year, we had one of the most dominant -- if not the most dominant -- teams in baseball," he continued, "and then the injuries hit us. That team, for the most part, is intact. Most of them are back. The one question we asked ourselves was, is our starting rotation good enough to beat certain teams in the American League, and we reached the consensus we needed more -- and that's why we got Carlos [Rodon].
"Do I think we're good enough to win a championship? Yes. But we've got to stay healthy."
According to Steinbrenner, the Yankees will assess the shortstop competition sometime in the next week. The owner will be involved in these discussions, which will ultimately come down to a decision made by GM Brian Cashman and manager Aaron Boone.
Nonetheless, Steinbrenner has been impressed by Volpe this spring, as well as the other youngsters: Oswald Peraza, Oswaldo Cabrera and Jasson Dominguez.
"It's exciting for me, personally, because I've followed these kids for years," Steinbrenner said. "For me, it's always exciting, particularly when it's someone's first spring training, like Volpe, that they perform and that they perform well, and that they impress guys like Judge, which is what they're doing."
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