TAMPA, Fla. — The Yankees’ antiquated facial hair policy has been amended.

The surprising decision came via an announcement from Hal Steinbrenner on Friday morning. With the Yankees preparing to play their first game of spring training, the owner announced that players can wear “well-groomed beards moving forward.”

“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,” 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.”

Yankees players previously couldn’t sport facial hair below the upper lip. Their grooming policy, implemented by Hal’s father, George, has been in place since the 1970s. It also forbids mutton chops and hair past uniform collars, which won’t change.

So why change the facial hair part now?

Steinbrenner, speaking during a press conference, reiterated that he’s been thinking about this subject for years, doing so more earnestly in recent months and weeks as he spoke to past and present players — including Aaron Judge, Gerrit Cole and Giancarlo Stanton — general manager Brian Cashman, and others inside and outside of his organization and the baseball industry. Steinbrenner said he spoke to players and senior staffers one-on-one and in-person on Monday before telling the Yankees his decision during a Friday morning team meeting.

“The vast majority of men in their 20s, 30s and into their 40s in this country have beards,” Steinbrenner, 55, said. “The vice president has a beard. Members of Congress have a beard. The list goes on and on and on in this country and in this world. It is a part of who these younger men are. It’s part of their character. It’s part of their persona. Do I totally relate to that? It’s difficult for me. I’m an older guy who’s never had a beard in his life.”

Steinbrenner, calling the old policy “outdated” and “somewhat unreasonable,” also said there was a competitive element at play, as the conversations he had relayed concerns that the Yankees’ facial hair policy could ward off potential acquisitions.

“If I ever found out that a player we wanted to acquire to make us better, to get us a championship, did not want to be here and, if he had the ability, would not come here because of that policy ... that would be very, very concerning,” Steinbrenner said. “And I’m fairly convinced that’s a real concern.”

Steinbrenner doesn’t know for a fact that beards have cost the Yankees players, but Cashman said CC Sabathia felt hesitancy before signing as a free agent in 2008 because of the old policy. It even came up when Cashman spoke to a potential non-roster invitee this spring.

Asked what his father would think of Friday’s change, Steinbrenner noted that “winning was the most important thing” to The Boss.

“If something like this would detract from that, lessen our chances, I don’t know, I think he might be a little more apt to do the change that I did than people think,” Steinbrenner said.

The Yankees’ grooming policy always gets talked about when a former player joins a new team and rocks a beard or long hair. However, Steinbrenner’s announcement follows renewed attention on the rules.

New closer Devin Williams was recently asked about having to shave the beard he wore in Milwaukee, and his clean-shaven look sparked discussion on social media at the start of camp. Williams then took team photos with a noticeable beard earlier this week.

“Everyone’s got an opinion,” the 30-year-old Williams said of shaving days before the pictures, “so it is what it is.”

Asked if Williams expressed any displeasure with the old policy, Yankees manager Aaron Boone said they talked. However, he hears from players on a near-yearly basis regarding this subject.

“He was ready for whatever,” Boone said.

Sabathia has also been wearing a beard as a guest at camp. As an active player, he took a light beard to the mound in the spring of 2017 after Clint Frazier, a prospect at the time, caused a stir with his long, red locks.

Prior to Steinbrenner’s announcement, Sabathia coincidentally spoke to the New York Daily News about the Yankees’ reputation for being a buttoned-up organization.

“The only thing that’s buttoned up about this place is the facial hair rule,” the Hall of Famer said. “That’s it.”

That’s no longer the case, as the Yankees are buzzing — or at least trimming — a rule that has polarized over the years. What qualifies as “well-groomed,” however, remains to be seen.

Steinbrenner said the Yankees would provide players with specific parameters. For now, Cole said Cashman only told the group, “We’re not trying to look like Duck Dynasty.”

“No diss against Duck Dynasty,” Cole continued. “You’re grinding in the woods all the time, you don’t really have another option.”

Cole, who wore a beard and longer hair earlier in his career, said the new policy, applicable to non-uniform personnel, “still embodies our neatness” but “allows for some individual freedom and a few less razor burns.” However, he’s not sure if he’s going to bring back a scruffier look.

“When I got to the big leagues, I wanted to look as old and as mature as possible,” the veteran said. “Now, maybe on the backside of the aging curve, I like looking younger. I don’t need all the gray showing up.”

Other Yankees weren’t sure what the future holds for their faces. Steinbrenner isn’t even sure if he can grow a beard. The same goes for Cashman.

“We’re gonna find out,” the latter said.

Boone isn’t sure about growing a beard in-season, though he sometimes does in the winter. Austin Wells, who already rocks a mustache and shaves five to six times a week, isn’t sure how to move forward, either. He said wearing a catcher’s mask is comfier with a beard, but he also appreciates Yankees tradition.

“I’ve told myself since I got drafted that it was a privilege to have to shave,” Wells said. “I’ve brainwashed myself into believing that and thinking that, so that’s probably why I feel weird about it.”

While Wells, Boone and others aren’t sure how they’ll proceed, all sounded supportive of the new era.

“I know it’s not a decision made lightly, obviously,” Boone said, “but I think it’s the right thing for us at this time.”

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