The New York Yankees’ 2023 season was a “failure on every level,” said owner Hal Steinbrenner in Tampa on Thursday, and the organization has to wear that. Literally: “Look at me!” he said. “Look at the bags under my eyes. There’s pressure on all of us, man. We’re feeling it, and that’s a good thing. We deserve to feel it. And that’s gonna make us stronger this year.”
In a 15-minute conversation with reporters two days before spring training games begin, Steinbrenner emphasized half a dozen times that 2023’s effort, in which the Yankees finished in fourth place, 19 games out of first, and missed the playoffs for the first time since ’16, was “embarrassing” and would fuel the organization this season.
He said he had never seen so many players report to camp early; spring training for that group, he said, started six weeks ago. “And I don’t think that’s a coincidence,” he said. “These guys really believe they have something to prove, and they’re ready to do it.”
