Yankees: Andrew McCutchen Picks Perfect Time to Call Out New York

The Yankees’ hair policy has drawn the ire of former NYY OF Andrew McCutchen.

The New York Yankees hair (or otherwise known as “appearance”) policy has been a talking point ever since it was enacted back in 1973. The rule states that players cannot have any facial hair aside from a mustache and must have their hair cut above the collar of their uniform.

One could (very easily) argue that it’s an outdated policy and by no means defines Yankees tradition (enacting something in 1973 doesn’t exactly constitute as “historical”). That’s why Andrew McCutchen, who played with the Yankees back in 2018, felt the need to speak out against it on Monday.

Cutch couldn’t have picked a better time either, as a lot of the current discourse focuses on expression, especially on an individual basis. It’s 2020, and those issues are still affecting people in the everyday workplace.

“I definitely do think it takes away from our individualism as players and as people. We express ourselves in different ways,” McCutchen said on “The Sports Bubble” podcast with Jensen Karp.

“I feel like maybe there should be some change there in the future — who knows when — but it’s just one of the many things in this game that I feel that there just needs … it needs to be talked about, and to be addressed.”

In wake of McCutchen’s comments, some on social media have been calling the Yankees policy racist, which is perhaps an overreaction. Don Mattingly famously refused to abide by the rule and was removed from the starting lineup and fined multiple times until he agreed to cut his hair. To Cutch’s point, if anything, it’s a way to silence individualism. The meaning and point of emphasis may have unintentionally changed over time.

It’s outdated and unneeded. How many free agents have the Yankees missed out on in the past because of it? Wouldn’t we like to see Gerrit Cole with his long hair and beard sitting down batter after batter? If a guy like Mattingly was protesting it decades ago, there’s clearly a disconnect among people.

Baseball is changing its ways each and every day. Hell, we’re about to have a universal DH forever. It’s not out of the question for the Yankees to consider relaxing a facial hair policy that we can venture many fans don’t even care about.