Regardless of what loudmouths on social media, WFAN, wherever say about Yankees manager Aaron Boone, it’s hard to deny a basic truth: The guy is a pretty good manager.
No, don’t grab the pitchforks and storm my desk. Think about it. Aaron Boone made the move from the ESPN booth to managing a baseball team with no prior coaching experience almost too seamlessly, and in New York to boot! His overall record is 663-483 as his eighth season winds down. That puts him seventh in Yankees all-time history, sandwiched right between two renowned skippers themselves, Joe Girardi and the late Billy Martin.
Boone has also made the playoffs in all but one of his seasons and, even in that awful 2023 campaign, he kept the Yankees above .500 and out of last place. Moreover, he rebounded the following year with an AL Pennant and trip to the World Series, where the Yankees flubbed and flapped through a five-game loss to the Dodgers.
Now, though? Well, for the first time in a while, maybe Aaron Boone’s performance isn’t as defensible as we think. No, not the constant aw-shucks vibe he carries in most of his press conferences and postgame interviews. The usual platitudes of how it’s a better team than the on-field performance, everyone has to be better, can’t have so many careless fundamental mistakes, and so on. The doubts don’t come anywhere from there.
The problem is that, even though the Yankees revamped and reloaded after Juan Soto left for the crosstown rival Mets, and they were even in first place for a bit, the car has stalled. Forget all the different ways the engine was retooled, from the Cody Bellinger carburetor to Devin Williams four-wheel-drive. Even the Max Fried transmission is starting to grind.
Oh, and the Gerrit Cole booster? Shorted out before the season even began, full rebuild necessary.
Now, to be fair, a lot of this is beyond Aaron Boone and his abilities. It’s not his fault Gerrit Cole, who turns 35 next month, needed Tommy John surgery. That could happen to any fastball-dominant ace.
Moreover, Boone isn’t the one on the mound not locating pitches well. Nor is he responsible for Anthony Volpe’s defense tanking or sudden inability to hit fastballs. Aaron Boone isn’t at fault for Paul Goldschmidt aging out of putting up MVP numbers.
If we’re beefing with anyone about the Yankees, then, make it general manager Brian Cashman. These are the players he chose after losing the Soto sweepstakes to Steve Cohen. He’s also the man who made all the trade deadline deals, with latest bullpen addition Jake Bird struggling to the point of being demoted to the minors. Not a great look.
But it’s as the old adage has always gone: If it’s not the talent, it’s the coaching. The Yankees have tried everything and simply nothing is working.
The bats rank high statistically, but just haven’t been producing for the last several weeks. The pitching and bullpen have collectively hit a wall from injury, overuse, bad luck, and everything in between. No roster move that Cashman has made has been objectively bad. Some, namely Williams, have just not worked out in the worst possible way.
But even so, Boone knows he’s running out of time this season. Anyone can tell his receiving a two-year contract coming into this season instead of three says it all: They want him to win without Juan Soto.
Maybe it’s just an historically bad cold streak. Perhaps this Yankees team just isn’t as good as Cashman’s front office think it is. Either way, depending on what happens the rest of the way, fans will seek someone to blame and be held accountable for the team’s struggles.
That’s always started with the manager. We’ll soon see if Boone can redeem himself in any fashion.
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