Aaron Judge Makes Decision On Growing Beard After Yankees Rule Change

Starting this MLB season, Aaron Judge and ever player on the New York Yankees could grow out facial hair if they want to. 

The Yankees were always against their players having facial hair since that's what the late George Steinbrenner preferred. On Friday, however, the 27-time World Series champions revealed they're getting rid of the "no facial hair policy" for the 2025 season. 

"In recent weeks I have spoken to a large number of former and current Yankees - spanning several eras - to elicit their perspectives on our longstanding facial hair and grooming policy, and I appreciate their earnest and varied feedback," Yankees chairman Hal Steinbrenner said in a statement. "These most recent conversations are an extension of ongoing internal dialogue that dates back several years. Ultimately the final decision rests with me, and after great consideration, we will be amending our expectations to allow our players and uniformed personnel to have well-groomed beards moving forward. It is the appropriate time to move beyond the familiar comfort of our former policy." 

On Saturday, Judge spoke to the media about this policy change. He admit that he's pretty surprised by the move. He's all for it though as long as the team continues to play at a high level. 

Judge told reporters, "If this is something that's going to stop us from winning games or stop us from getting a player or stop a certain guy from not performing their best, why would we put that in the way of what our ultimate goal is?"

Despite being OK with this decision, Judge made it clear that he won't be growing out a beard.