NASHVILLE – Hank Steinbrenner has talked and talked and talked, and if the idea was to become the talk of baseball, he sure has succeeded.
Hardly a familiar face passes by at the Winter Meetings without asking a version of, “What has Hank said now?” In a very short time, he has gone from wanting nothing to do with the Yankees to being the face – and certainly the voice – of the organization.
He has become Yammerin’ Hank (and I am copyrighting that right here, in case it catches on like The Boss once stuck to his dad).
The question is whether all the noise is hurting the club. Like his more famous father, Hank has brought a bit of controversy and theater to his pronouncements. He has managed to shine the spotlight on his supernova of a club in an even stronger way this offseason. It definitely is driving the Mets batty as they wonder exactly what must be done to get noticed.
Nevertheless, the Yanks are paying a price for Hank’s words both financially and – at the least – in perception. Many executives believe Hank’s newfound love of fame – of seeing himself quoted – is undercutting GM Brian Cashman’s authority. One AL executive went as far as to say, “The Yanks have so many financial advantages that the only way to keep up with them is if they have dysfunction, and this looks like dysfunction. This looks like they have gotten away a little from how Brian was running things for a few years.”
However, organization insiders insist Hank is listening to Cashman’s counsel on baseball matters, that he simply is spending more than Cashman would like on players such as Alex Rodriguez, Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada, and definitely talking publicly way more than the secretive Cashman is comfortable hearing.
The bluster does have a cost. Hank initially said the club was done with A-Rod when the slugger opted out. Yet whatever the cover story was about Rodriguez crawling back without Scott Boras in tow, he still was guaranteed nearly $300 million. Drawing that kind of line in the sand and then removing the line emboldens every agent and rival executive that the Yankees really don’t have a line in the sand.
So the Twins just may be testing Hank now. There was no deal by Hank’s midnight deadline last night for Johan Santana. Hank said the Yanks would withdraw from negotiations in that case. If they do, maybe the Red Sox are back in the lead or maybe the Mets really can wheedle their way in.
But few in the game were taking Hank’s deadline seriously. Most know Cashman prefers to operate covertly, and no one would be surprised to hear him and the even more cloaked Bill Smith, the Twins’ GM, have renewed talks away from this heated forum and found a deal.
That would mean the Yanks might end up with Santana in two weeks. But it also might mean that Hank has to go back on his word again. Will he?
This is the problem when you talk and talk and talk. Somebody might hear something they don’t like. It happened earlier this offseason with some jibes at Joe Torre, and now again with the Twins not thrilled to be publicly threatened with deadlines.
Yammerin’ Hank is learning on the job that when you are Boss, every word matters.