Hank Steinbrenner Has Become Irrelevant

Jim Baumbach of Newsday recently wrote a piece where he tried to catch up with our old pal Hank Steinbrenner to find out what he’s been up to since he lead the Yankees in the push to trade for Johan Santana.

Hank was overruled by his brother Hal Steinbrenner and Yankees general manager Brian Cashman in the Santana deal and we haven’t heard much from him since. He wasn’t on the field during the closing of the old Yankee Stadium or during the opening of the new one so Baumbach’s quest could be informational.

So where has he been?

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Hank still reports to work here at Steinbrenner Field, and he’s identified as the Yankees’ general partner / co-chairperson. The official team stance is that Hank Steinbrenner still plays a vital role in the Yankees’ baseball operations.

Team president Randy Levine and general manager Brian Cashman both used “intimately involved” to describe Hank. “I speak to him several times a week on all aspects,” Levine said, noting that Hank took part in a Yankee Global Enterprises board meeting by phone last week.

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Immediately it sounds as if he’s still only technically apart of the team. His title and the fact that he was involved in a board meeting via telephone doesn’t give us any idea of what he does and apparently some of the Yankees don’t even know.

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Howard Rubenstein, the Steinbrenner family’s venerable spokesman, said Hank still is involved, though when asked to describe his role, he said: “I can’t define it but I know Hank is still involved. I know just from the board meetings I attend.”

But multiple people familiar with the situation assert that Hank Steinbrenner was truly relevant to Yankees fans for only a very short time, and he has been irrelevant for well more than a year now.

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Hank’s last real involvement came in 2007 when the Yankees resigned Alex Rodriguez. At the time Cashman notified that if he opt-ed out of his contract that the Yankees sould not negotiate a deal. He opt-ed out, but Hank personally brokered a deal anyways.

Since then Cashman has had primary control over the team and he’s made quite a few moves that have put the Yankees in the position they are in today. Lately some of his deals have looked especially good, not trading for Santana and stealing Nick Swisher from the White Sox.

Even the deal for Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte was a good one at the time. The Yankees were just a few game out in the wildcard and got two good veteran players for three mid or low level prospects and one former strong prospect who had just recently tried to walk about on the team after a bad performance. Some of those pitchers have panned out for the Pirates, but only marginally and in the much weaker National League.

The jury is still out on Marte, so far it doesn’t look great, but I’m holding judgment until the postseason is over. Nady was a good but not great outfielder who certainly would have contributed had it not been for an injury. Also, the Yankees might have been able to deal him for pitching if he had been able to avoid injury.

What this all means is that Hank has stopped doing his best impression of his dad while his brother Hal and Cashman have grabbed more authority with the team and as of now it is working out quite well.