#Andrew McCutchen: Yankees’ hair rules take away ‘from our individualism’

Andrew McCutchen couldn’t be himself when he was with the Yankees.

McCutchen played 30 regular season games and in the postseason for the 2018 team that was eliminated by the Red Sox in the ALDS.

The Yankees do not allow players’ hair to extend past the collar or facial hair that extends past the top lip. As a result, McCutchen had to shave the beard he had been growing before his first day with the team.

For most of his career, McCutchen sported dreadlocks, helping him become one of the most recognizable players in the league, but he cut them in 2015 to raise money for charity. If he still had the dreads when he arrived with the Yankees, McCutchen said cutting his hair would have been a “very tough thing for me to do.”

“Because that was who I was,” McCutchen said on “The Sports Bubble” podcast. “That was how I expressed myself. That’s who made me Andrew McCutchen. That’s how people noticed who I was, it made me unique. I think, especially in this year, the year of 2020, I just feel like these things are, or should be, things that people should take at heart and realize that we have a way of expressing ourselves in different ways.”

Specifically, McCutchen believes the grooming standards required by the organization has a negative impact on what makes each player unique.

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“I definitely do think it takes away from our individualism as players and as people,” McCutchen said. “We express ourselves in different ways.”

The rule was implemented by the late Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and has been upheld under his son Hal’s stewardship. Recently, star pitcher Gerrit Cole had to cut his well-known long locks after inking a nine year, $324 million contract with the Yankees this offseason.

Despite its tradition, McCutchen, believes it’s time for new regulations in New York.

“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,” McCutchen said.

McCutchen signed a three-year, $50 million deal with the Phillies after the 2018 season. The 33-year-old slashed .253/.421/.892 in 25 regular season games with the Yankees, adding two hits and a walk in 19 plate appearances in the 2018 postseason.

Even though he disagrees with New York’s policies, McCutchen was glad for his time with the Yankees, calling the franchise “great,” adding that the Pinstripes made him feel a little more powerful.

“It was for me it was an honor,” McCutchen said. “It was something that I felt I would never have the opportunity to do.”