When the New York Yankees introduced Juan Soto to the news media last week after a blockbuster trade with San Diego, their new slugger was already in midseason form.
His cheeks were smooth and his hair was short. Not even a curl poked out from beneath his brand-new Yankees cap.
That’s not always a given for the club’s acquisitions, many of whom arrive with some assembly required. Such is the case for Alex Verdugo, a bearded outfielder acquired in a Dec. 5 trade with Boston. Verdugo, a slick-fielding 27-year-old, faces a choice that is unique to the Yankees: Adhere to the team’s ban on beards and long hair, instituted by team owner George Steinbrenner in 1976, or hit the bench.
For the Yankees, who still don’t have names on the backs of their jerseys, adhering to an appearance policy created by an owner who died in 2010 is yet another tradition that makes them stand out from other teams. But in an era when facial hair is common even in the corporate world, a sports team with strict rules for grooming inspired one former Yankee to wonder aloud what it might be costing the team in terms of signing new players.
“This might be an unpopular take to Yankees fans, but you’d be surprised how much more attractive the Yankees would be if they got rid of that facial hair rule,” Cameron Maybin, a former Yankee, wrote on X this month. “You wouldn’t believe how many quality players just think it’s a wack rule to have.”
