Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner hires third party to audit team's analytics department - "This year was obviously unacceptable"

Hal Steinbrenner hires third party to audit Yankees
Hal Steinbrenner hires third party to audit Yankees' analytics department, wants to have 'frank conversations' with management

A lot has gone wrong for the New York Yankees this season, leaving owner Hal Steinbrenner with a million questions to answer.

The Yankees entered 2023 on the back of a 99-win season and an ALCS appearance. Naturally, they were expected to better those benchmarks but instead, they have done significantly worse.

Aaron Boone’s side is currently at .507, but should they finish with a losing record, it would end the Yankees’ streak of 30 consecutive winning seasons. It would also mean that the Bronx won’t witness postseason baseball for the first time since 2016.

In a recent conversation with the Associated Press, Steinbrenner said that the team will be scrutinized from top to bottom. It’s a process that will certainly require radical measures, but ones that Steinbrenner is prepared to implement, if deemed necessary. He outlined Yankees’ plans to hire a third-party firm to perform a full audit of their analytics department. He said:

“We’re going to take a very deep dive into everything we’re doing. We’re looking to bring in possibly an outside company to really take a look at the analytics side of what we do. Baseball operations in general. We’re going to have some very frank conversions with each other. This year was obviously unacceptable.”

According to MLB insider Bob Klapisch, Steinbrenner has delivered on his promise and an unnamed company has now been hired to evaluate the Yankees’ analytics wing.

Popular MLB podcaster approves Hal Steinbrenner’s audit decision

The Yankees’ analytics department has been an area of scrutiny over the last few seasons and has been questioned many times this year by the Bronx faithful.

Some former players, like Alex Rodriguez, have previously dismissed the importance of analytics in the modern game.

Rodriguez even went on to suggest ahead of this year’s All-Star game that the Yankees should completely drop their analytical approach in favor of old-school Yankee ball.

However, the landscape of every sport is changing and analytics have become a crucial part of that evolution. Given that baseball is a stat-heavy sport, analytics simply cannot be ignored in this day and age.

Popular podcaster Jimmy O’Brien, better known as Jomboy, has expressed his support for Hal Steinbrenner’s decision to hire a company for a full audit.

According to him, this represents a chance for the Yankees to hear an honest verdict on what’s been going wrong, and act accordingly. Speaking on the latest episode of Talkin’ Yanks, Jomboy said:

"Come take a look at what we're doing. Tell us how dumb we are."

We can only imagine at this point what the outcome of the audit would be, but it’s most likely going to expose some glaring gaps in the Yankees existing analytical methodology. Will the Yankees address those gaps successfully? Only time would tell.

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Edited by Souvanik Seal
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