Throughout the offseason, the CBS Sports MLB experts will bring you a weekly Batting Around roundtable breaking down pretty much anything. The latest news, a historical question, thoughts about the future of baseball, all sorts of stuff. Today we're going to tackle Aaron Boone's job security as Yankees manager.
Should the Yankees move on from Aaron Boone?
R.J. Anderson: No. I don't think Boone is great with tactics, and I'm not qualified to speak on how well (or not well) he manages the personalities in the clubhouse -- New York's front office has a better feel for that component, and I have to assume they have their reasons for keeping him around this long. I do think that firing him after the year the Yankees had, compiling both the best record and best run differential in the American League and a pennant victory, is a wee bit unrealistic. I understand the larger dynamic at play here -- the fan base has been discontent with Boone for years and so on -- but that kind of stuff almost never happens. For good reason, too: it makes for terrible optics.
Dayn Perry: Yes. Boone's strange decision to throw Nestor Cortes into the high-leverage fire in Game 1 of the World Series cost them the game, and the Yankees' sloppy play in Game 5, which cost them the game, is at least partly a reflection of the manager. The talent is in place, and there's absolutely no need to clean house after winning the pennant and clocking the best record in the AL. However, the talent in place deserves a manager who's more tactically proficient than Boone is.
Matt Snyder: My initial thought was no. In speaking with several people I respect, however, I'm to the point where I can be persuaded to answer yes. It isn't necessarily defense and baserunning so much as a general "sloppiness" that does the Yankees in when they lose. What we saw in the playoff losses was exactly that. My initial stance was on the hypothetical, "if Bruce Bochy was hired to manage the Yankees before 2023, does Gerrit Cole cover first base in Game 5 of the 2024 World Series?" It sure doesn't feel like that automatically changes things, but the answer I got back is it very well might. And it made me think pretty hard about the matter and, yes, a general sloppiness can certainly infect the entire team and, ultimately, Boone is the boss on the field there. I'm still not 100% on the "fire Boone" train, but I certainly understand the sentiment while also apologizing for not giving a definitive answer.
Mike Axisa: I think so, yeah. Boone is not the problem with the Yankees -- the front office has whiffed on a lot of moves the last few years, that's the biggest problem -- but I'm not convinced he's part of the solution either. The sloppiness we saw in the World Series and throughout the postseason is nothing new. The Yankees do that stuff all year and have for several years now, and at some point that reflects poorly on the manager. By all accounts, Boone is beloved by his players and an asset in the clubhouse. As far as in-game strategy goes, though, he's certainly isn't irreplaceable. He's nothing special in that regard. The Yankees keep hitting the same ceiling. They beat up on overmatched (and outspent) AL Central teams in the postseason, then lose to a big-market team that operates the same way as them, only better. Boone just wrapped up his seventh season with the Yankees. That's an eternity for a manager. Feels to me like there's more upside to a managerial change than downside at this point.