The New York Yankees are not as successful as they had hoped. A combination of injuries and poor starts to the season from key players have left the team barely above last place in the AL East. Team owner Hal Steinbrenner is keeping tabs on what the team has to do with its stars, Aaron Judge and Gerrit Cole.

Steinbrenner said on The Show podcast with the New York Post's Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman (at the 23:38 mark) that he, Judge and Cole have closed-door meetings, along with general manager Brian Cashman, to discuss what the Yankees have to improve in.

“It is new,” Steinbrenner said of the meetings. “In the past, it would be more me running into somebody in the dining area or in the training room and getting information from them there. I thought it would be a healthy exercise to do what you just said: have the leader of the position players and a leader of the pitchers in the room with Cash, with me and just hear what concerns they have and what their thoughts are on everything and what we could be doing better.”

As the captain of the team, Judge plays a huge role in these meetings. While Cole's leadership is also key, it's up to Judge to relay the findings to the team and motivate his teammates to win.

When pushed on what was talked about in the meetings, Steinbrenner upheld the rule of secrecy that each of the key Yankees figures swore to. They agreed that the discussions in those meetings will have to stay there. “Believe me when I tell you that everybody in the room understood because of that parameter, that they were to say whatever’s on their mind. [We] really wanted to have a good, healthy, once-a-month-or-so dialogue,” he said.

Cole and Judge have been sensational to start the season and top prospect Anthony Volpe has been respectable. New York has time to get back into the playoff picture but has to start getting into the right habits. Especially in a very competitive division, they can't afford to be so far back in the standings for much longer.