After being eliminated (and swept) by the Houston Astros in the American League Championship Series, many New York Yankees fans started to speculate about the future of manager Aaron Boone.
Once again, he completed a highly successful regular season with 99 wins, but fell short when it mattered most: the postseason.
You could almost say that the things needed for a manager to succeed at the regular season are a bit different than the required postseason skillset.
There needs to be a bit more urgency at the playoffs, but most notably, a manager needs to handle his bullpen to perfection understanding strengths, weaknesses, recent workload, and each specific situation.
This is where Boone fails miserably.
He is a good manager, but needs to improve that and several other things if the Yankees are going to succeed in October.
Some fans said the Yankees elimination (and the way they went out, particularly) were not his fault, while others want him gone.
The Yankees Owner Revealed Boone’s Fate
Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner already gave his verdict about the situation.
“Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner plans to keep Aaron Boone as his manager. ‘I believe he is a very good manager,’ Steinbrenner said Wednesday as he left the Yankees player development complex. ‘I don’t see a change there,’” AP Sports tweeted.
Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner plans to keep Aaron Boone as his manager.
“I believe he is a very good manager," Steinbrenner said Wednesday as he left the Yankees player development complex. "I don’t see a change there.”https://t.co/0xjBDqUb56
— AP Sports (@AP_Sports) October 26, 2022
Boone is not really the Yankees’ problem, although he could certainly do some things differently hoping for better results.
The Yankees need to make sure to have top-notch player development people and continually look for talent to serve as depth, working to improve existing skills and help players reach their best versions.
They need to do what they did with Jose Trevino, Matt Carpenter, and Ron Marinaccio, but with many more players.
You need payroll flexibility and the best analytics department to do that.
It’s a work in progress, organizationally, but Boone should not be blamed for all their failures.
His 14-17 postseason can certainly improve, yes, but not everything is on him.
NEXT: MLB World Reacts To The Aaron Boone News