BALTIMORE — Hal Steinbrenner, in town primarily to vote on a new commissioner, nevertheless looked far more comfortable discussing his Yankees — taking on the Orioles at Camden Yards — than Major League Baseball’s inner workings.
The Yankees managing general partner talked mostly about his club’s future: He has confidence the Yankees, disappointing so far, will rise in 2014.
He expects Alex Rodriguez to attend spring training in 2015, at the least. And he declined to comment on the future of his general manager Brian Cashman, whose contracts expires at the conclusion of this season.
Let’s start with A-Rod, who quietly has been serving his season-long suspension and still has three years and $61 million remaining on his Yankees contract.
Asked whether he expected Rodriguez back with the Yankees, Steinbrenner said, “That’s what he’s planning for, and that’s what we’re planning for.”
Steinbrenner added, “I have not talked to Alex. I know my brother-in-law [Yankees executive vice president Felix Lopez] ran into him in the city, said he looks good, looks fit. Alex is a hard worker. Alex will be ready. And we’ll just have to go from there. See how he does and how he responds to playing every day in spring training.”
Rodriguez has undergone major surgery on both hips. If he proves physically unable to perform during spring training, then the Yankees’ insurance policy would cover the bulk of his salary.
As for Cashman, who is facing the possibility of missing the playoffs for a second straight season, Steinbrenner said he had not yet decided on the future of the Yankees’ general manager since 1998.
“We’re so busy right now, trying to figure out who’s going to be playing in any given game, much less that,” Steinbrenner said. “We’ll be talking about that soon enough. But you know me. We’ve got enough things to worry about during the season. That’s where our focus needs to be.
“Let me get to October — hopefully the end of October, beginning of November — and we’ll go from there.”
Historically, Steinbrenner lets Cashman’s and manager Joe Girardi’s contracts play out before addressing them. And historically, of course, he has retained both men.
In the past, Steinbrenner has publicly shared his desire to keep Cashman in his walk years, but that didn’t happen until late September 2008, and three years ago, he didn’t address it at length.
His comments Wednesday felt less like a non-endorsement and more like a sense he had too many other current items on his plate.
Concerning the Yankees’ chances of climbing into the playoffs: “My job is to be an optimist and not to be anything else,” Steinbrenner said. “I am confident.”
He placed the onus on the club’s lineup, saying, “We’ve put a lot of money into the offense, as well, and they have been, as a whole, inconsistent. It’s been a problem. And that has to change.”
In all, Steinbrenner said, this injury-prone 2014 season reminded him too much of the Yankees’ injury-prone 2013.
“As I said last year, I’m proud of them,” he said. “They’re not quitters. They’re not going to give up. That’s why they’re still in it…We’re there, as we were last year at this time. The question is, where are we in a month? It’s up to them.”
Speaking of a month from now, Steinbrenner explained the team’s thinking in scheduling Derek Jeter Day for Sept. 7, three weeks before the season ends.
It appeared an odd choice, given that the Yankees honored Mariano Rivera last year before their final Sunday home game, and called into question whether the Yankees scheduled it earlier to guarantee another sellout.
“I had a conversation with [Jeter’s agent] Casey Close before all of this came out,” Steinbrenner said. “I just explained to him, ‘First of all, we want it to be a Sunday, of course.’…It’s going to be a sellout regardless of when it is. I just told him, I said, ‘If we’re in the middle of this race still, and we do this the last week of the season, when we’re playing [Toronto and Baltimore], I need everybody’s focus to be on that game, on that series. Particularly Derek, knowing Derek, he’s going to want to have his head in the game and not have to worry about anything else. To me, it was the logical choice.”