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The Yankees re-signed Manager Aaron Boone on Tuesday, signing him to a three-year deal that includes a club option for the 2025 season. But in making the announcement, the team’s owner made the walking orders very clear for a franchise that reached the playoffs four seasons in a row during the Boone era, but bounced back sooner and earlier each October: Get better.
“At Aaron Boone, we have a person and manager in our clubhouse with baseball acumen and widespread respect to continue to push us forward,” said Hal Steinbrenner, Yankees managing general partner, in a statement to the team.
“We have to grow, evolve and evolve as a team and as an organization. We need to heal. Period. I know Aaron fully embraced our expectations of success, and I can’t wait to leverage his intelligence, instincts and leadership for our next World Series title.”
In video conversations with reporters on Tuesday, Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman and Boone, whose past contract expired after this season, definitely agreed.
“I can help get us to the top,” said Boone, 48. “That’s why I’m here. That’s why I came back. That’s why I signed up to come here in the first place. That’s what I’m after. I’m just personally trying to continue to evolve and grow in this business and eventually the proof will be in the pudding.”
Cashman added: “Are we good enough? Answer is no. Do we need to be better at what we do? Answer Yes. Do our fans deserve the best of the best? Always. I am proud of my achievements and regret my failures.”
Cashman, 54, reiterated what the Yankees had during the seesaw 2021 season: Boone “was part of the solution. It wasn’t a problem or a problem.”
It’s been two weeks since the Yankees lost. American League wild card game To the Boston Red Sox – a delay attributed to Boone when weighing his future with his family, changes in coaching staff and negotiating with the Yankees – Cashman said there was “no doubt” he wouldn’t resign Boone.
“A coach is only as good as the players he has,” said Cashman, who left the 2022 season behind. “Aaron is pretty good in his position. As I’ve spoken to the players in our club, we need to demand excellence in all categories from them and find ways to extract it from them. But I also need to find lots of great teammates to surround them with.”
Cashman led the 92-win 2021 Yankees, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, he sometimes seemed “unstoppable” and sometimes “untraceable”. He said the teams “definitely went backwards in categories we didn’t see or expected to come.” One thing he mentions: The team’s offense was strong in previous seasons, inconsistent, and ranked 19th out of 30 teams in the major leagues in series (4.39) and had the sixth-highest hit rate (24.5 percent).
“We’re not as athletic as we’d like, and we’re definitely not contact-oriented,” Cashman said. He added that he and the front office should prepare a better table of options for Boone and the coaches – in other words, the players.
Cashman said the Yankees will be in the market for a short time because the blasted Gleyber Torres this season is better suited to second base. But he didn’t close the door by changing the catcher – Gary Sanchez scored 23 but fell in other ways – or overhauled more chances.
Relying on many of the same key players over the past four years, the Yankees set a regular season record of 328-218 under Boone. He joined Mike Matheny (formerly of the St. Louis Cardinals) as the only person in major league history to reach a post-season in each of his first four seasons as a manager.
Talented if imperfect, despite rosters and massive payrolls, the Yankees’ title drought has reached 12 seasons. The last two years have been more of a struggle. After winning the American League East in 2019, they didn’t catch the smaller market, smaller payroll Tampa Bay Rays in 2020 or this year, instead making it to the playoffs as a wildcard team – and they didn’t get far from that.
“Other years we’ve had fun, we’ve had a legit chance to run to the American League championship and represent the league in the World Series and see where that would take us,” Cashman said. Said. “This year, I thought we had a chance to do some damage and maybe keep going, but our season sometimes looked like we could get a first-round knockout, and that’s what really happened.”
Boone returned to a coaching team that would be significantly different from the others during his tenure. Last week, the Yankees announced that they will not be returning to the three coaches who have been with Boone since the beginning of his tenure—two successful coaches and close friends and third core coach Phil Nevin.
“I don’t want to just say that we need to get better—it’s pretty obvious,” Boone said. “It’s important for me to admit that I feel we have the people to do it. There should be tweaks. There must be adjustments. From my perspective and our coaching staff, we all need to get a little bit better and make sure we hold each other accountable.”
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