Outside company won’t be auditing Yankees after all: source

NEW YORK — A source within the Yankees organization confirmed to the New York Daily News that an outside company will not be auditing the team or its analytics department this offseason.

Instead, the Yankees will be the ones taking a look at an outside analytics company. SNY’s Andy Martino first reported this on Tuesday morning before a source confirmed the information with The News.

That source said that David Grabiner, the Yankees’ director of quantitative analysis, has been recommending that the team look at this outside analytics company for three years, but the money required to do so had not been approved until recently. The company, which the source could not name, has models for things like drafting, defense, offense, pitching and evaluating players. The Yankees will look at the company’s models and compare and contrast them with their own.

If the Yankees see that the company is doing something different, they will be able to ask why or how. The Yankees will be reviewing the company, not the other way around.

Prior to Tuesday, it was believed that an outside, McKinsey-like company would be auditing the Yankees this offseason after the fourth-place team finished 82-80 and failed to make the playoffs for the first time since 2016. The confusion stems from comments owner Hal Steinbrenner made to The Associated Press’ Mark Didtler on Aug. 31.

“We’re going to take a very deep dive into everything we’re doing,” Steinbrenner said at the time. “We’re looking to bring in possibly an outside company to really take a look at the analytics side of what we do. Baseball operations in general. We’re going to have some very frank conversations with each other. This year was obviously unacceptable.”

The Yankees’ analytics department has long been a focal point for critics and fans, and Steinbrenner’s misunderstood quote added fuel to the fire. So did Aaron Judge, as the Yankees captain criticized how the club uses and disseminates its data on Sunday.

While Judge thinks the Yankees provide “great” resources and information, he said “we need to take a look at” how analytics are being used and communicated.

“I think it’s now about funneling those down to the players in the right format,” Judge said. “I wouldn’t say overloaded. It’s looking at the right numbers. We get a lot of numbers, but I think we might be looking at the wrong ones and maybe should value some other ones that some people might see as having no value. But when you’re playing 162 games, you’ve got to grind and you’ve got to play through things, I think there are certain things you can’t put a number on.”

The reigning MVP went on to say that he does a “pretty good job filtering what I need to filter” when it comes to analytics, but doing that could be tougher for younger players. “Maybe we need to have a better process for that,” Judge said. “So we’ll see.”

The source told The News that people and departments — including general manager Brian Cashman, manager Aaron Boone, coaches, player development, amateur scouting, pro scouting and analytics — will be under review this winter. However, Steinbrenner will be the one reviewing, not an outside firm.

As for the team’s review of the analytics company, the source compared it to when the Yankees partnered with Eric Cressey and his sports performance company three years ago. In that case, however, Cressey was looking at the Yankees’ strength and conditioning systems.

Cressey is now the Yankees’ head of player health and performance, another department that is sure to be under the microscope this offseason after injuries ravaged the team’s roster yet again.

Finally, the source added that it’s not unusual for the Yankees to pursue these types of partnerships, but there is now added emphasis following the team’s disappointing season, which has left Steinbrenner determined to have difficult conversations.

Those conversations will begin Wednesday, as Steinbrenner, Cashman and Boone, among others, will meet in Tampa, Fla. Judge has also said that he plans on talking with Steinbrenner and Cashman this offseason.