Aaron Boone may have saved job with this Yankees series win
Aaron Boone has never been bad at his job. In fact, he has consistently been a pretty good manager and front man, a guy who represents his sport in a way that should be copied and pasted into an employee’s manual.
So even if the Yankees had lost this Division Series to Cleveland, a case could’ve been made for them to bring him back for a sixth season. A case could’ve been made for “pretty good” being good enough. Boone’s regular-season winning percentage of .603 is effectively the same as Joe Torre’s (.605), and he stands with Torre and Casey Stengel as the only managers to reach the postseason in each of their first five years with the Yanks.
But that case wouldn’t have been a convincing one if the Yankees had gone one-and-done again in the playoffs. Boone had made a potentially lethal strategic mistake in Game 3 by not using Clay Holmes, and opened a door for Terry Francona’s underdogs to advance to the ALCS via a Game 5 victory in The Bronx.
As it turned out Tuesday, the Guardians failed to charge through that door. Starter Aaron Civale surrendered a three-run homer to Giancarlo Stanton in the first, and reliever Sam Hentges surrendered a sky-high solo shot to Aaron Judge in the second, and that was that. The Yankees won, 5-1, and headed off to face their old friends in Houston, while Terry Francona’s heartbroken team flew back to Cleveland wondering what might have been.
Francona belongs in the Hall of Fame, but his decision to start Civale, who had given up 10 runs in nine innings to the Yankees this year, was as bad a sudden-death call as you will ever see. It was worse than Grady Little’s decision to stick with Pedro Martinez in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS, which was settled on a walk-off homer by You Know Who.
Aaron Boone made the logical choice after Monday night’s washout, trading Jameson Taillon for a short-rested Nestor Cortes, and smartly stayed out of the way while Cortes did his thing. That’s a good thing, too, for the winning manager and those who care about him.
No team official would ever admit it for public consumption, but I think Boone could’ve very easily been fired if an opponent with no business winning this Division Series had toppled his. Cleveland had spent roughly $180 million less on payroll than the Yankees did, and hit exactly half the number of home runs (254-127).
So, yes, nine out of every 10 Yankees fans would’ve been calling for Boone’s head had Game 5 gone south. And after great deliberation, I’m guessing owner Hal Steinbrenner and general manager Brian Cashman would’ve presented them that head.
While walking the Stadium hallways Tuesday night, wearing an expression of sheer relief, Cashman maintained that Boone’s status wouldn’t have been in doubt if the Yanks walked out of the building losers.
“Not for me,” he said. “In New York it’s either you’re really good and smart, or really bad and stupid. And it just seems like they’re the only two lanes people want to drive on, and the truth is not the extreme one way or another. … He’s really good at what he does.”
Of course, Cashman was speaking from a position of strength. History is written by the victors, and the GM didn’t have to field the question after absorbing a week’s worth of thunderous fan and media noise about the downfall of the 2022 Yanks.
Last year, Cashman ran out some of Boone’s coaches. This year, in the event of another early exit, he could have come for Boone himself, even after giving him that three-year contract extension with a club option for 2025.
Boone lost in the wild-card round last fall to Francona’s old Red Sox while batting Joey Gallo fourth, one year after he lost to Tampa Bay in the Division Series, which was one year after he lost to Houston in the ALCS. His October results were going in the wrong direction, and as all students of that storied franchise and this storied market knows, everyone in pinstripes gets judged by October results.
When Steinbrenner decided to notarize the manager’s new contract last fall, he praised Boone’s character, acumen, and leadership skills. But the team owner also said the following: “As a team and as an organization, we must grow, evolve and improve. We need to get better. Period.”
A message was sent. It now appears that Boone’s program is indeed growing, and evolving, and improving, and getting better.
“[Boone] is a strong human being,” Cashman said, “and you’ve got to be a strong human being to be the manager of the New York Yankees.”
Tuesday night, while holding a champagne glass, wearing backward-facing goggles around his neck, and sparring with a weeks-long cough, Boone spoke of his team’s willingness to fight.
“We just kind of kept playing in this series when it was a challenge, when it was difficult,” he said.
Teams take on the personality of their leaders. “If your manager is calm,” Cashman said, “I think your players have a chance to be calm.”
As a player, Aaron Boone was once calm enough to send the Yankees to the World Series with one swing. He just showed us something in earning this chance to lead them there as a manager.
