About the Off-season: Eight is Too Many

About the Off-season: Eight is Too Many

By Tim Kabel

November 2, 2024

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The Yankees lost to the Dodgers 7-6 Wednesday night, losing the World Series in five games to the Los Angeles Dodgers. It was a disappointing end to what had been a satisfying year. Does the end taint the year to the point that it can no longer be satisfying? That is a judgment call. I believe it is one we can't answer yet. If this year turns out to be a building block that leads to multiple World Series appearances and wins, then it won't be a disappointing year in the grand scheme of things. It will be a step toward the ultimate goal. However, if this team does not make the World Series again in the near future and the roster is inferior, this year will be a disappointment. It will represent a failure to achieve the goal of a World Series championship in the one opportunity they had. Therefore, there is a lot riding on this offseason.

There always is, but this one is particularly important.

The most important thing for the Yankees to do is to re-sign Juan Soto. There are other moves to be made as well but, that move is essential. I agree with Dr. Semendinger that if Soto is not a Yankee next year, the fault will be with the Yankees and no one else. They have the financial resources to pay Soto whatever he wants, and they should do so. I did not say they should do so within reason, because whatever the final amount is, it will be exorbitant. Hal Steinbrenner needs to swallow hard and pay the money. We will discuss that more as we proceed through the offseason. After all, since Scott Boras is Soto's agent, he won't be signing anytime soon. It is possible that after the debacles that happened last year with Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery, Soto may sign sooner than the beginning of spring training, but we will see. There is another issue to discuss right now.

I have been one of those people who have stated the Yankees will not win a World Series as long as Aaron Boone is the manager. Now, I am generally a very optimistic person. I agree with the Winston Churchill quote, “I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.” Yet, when the Yankees were winning Game Five of the World Series 5-0, my wife turned to me and said that the Yankees were going to win. I responded, “don't be so sure.” I had a feeling they would lose.

You can't blame Aaron Boone for the errors by Anthony Volpe and Aaron Judge. You also can't blame Aaron Boone for the failure between Gerrit Cole and Anthony Rizzo to record the out at first base on Mookie Betts’ ground ball. (It is interesting that ground balls to first hit by a man named Mookie have figured prominently in World Series played by New York teams.) Yet the failure to cover first base was an example of the overall fundamental weakness of this team. That is the responsibility of the manager. It is his job, along with his coaching staff, to ensure that the team is fundamentally sound. The Yankees were not this season and have not been for a while.

There are two other mistakes in Game Five that can be attributed to Boone. First, during that fifth inning, when things were unraveling, and Gerrit Cole, who is a high-strung individual, was feeling pressure, Boone did nothing. Neither he nor his pitching coach made a mound visit. I'm not saying that Cole should have been removed from the game. He should not have been. But if the manager or pitching coach had gone out and addressed Cole and the infielders and just settled them down, there might have been a different outcome. It would have at least provided a break for a few minutes. Would that have made a difference? We don't know, but at least it should have been tried. The other mistake was not bringing in Luke Weaver to start the eighth inning. The Yankees were winning 6-5 at the time. If Boone did not want to bring in Weaver, he could have left Clay Holmes in and gone batter to batter. I am not the biggest Clay Holmes fan in the world but, when he is on, he can still be dominant. He had thrown 11 pitches in the seventh inning and definitely could have faced at least a batter or two. He certainly could not have done much worse than Tommy Kahnle. Tommy Kahnle can be very good but, if he becomes over-reliant on the change up, the batters can take advantage and hit him. That is what happened. Kahne failed and then Weaver came in anyway, but with the bases loaded, and before you knew it, the Yankees were losing 7-6.

Change up is baseball vernacular for a change of pace. The purpose of the pitch is to confuse the batter by matching it up with a hard fastball. It throws the batters’ timing off. However, if you throw nothing but the change of pace, it is not a change of pace, it is just the pace. Not only that, but it’s also a slower pace. When I was a kid, I used to listen to the local radio program every morning before school, particularly if there was inclement weather. There was one radio personality who said every single day, “leave early." If you leave early every day, you are not leaving early, that is the time you are now leaving. In other words, if you leave at 7:30 AM instead of 8:00 AM, 7:30 is now your departure time. It's the same thing with Tommy Kahnle and the change up.

If Boone had managed Game 5 differently, it is conceivable that the Yankees would have won the game. Add that to Game 1, where Boone’s decisions to remove Gerrit Cole after 88 pitches and then to bring in Nestor Cortes, who had not pitched in over a month instead of Tim Hill who had been successful to that point in the postseason, and you can certainly make a case that Aaron Boone’s poor managing cost the Yankees two games in this World Series.

If the Yankees had won those games, we would have watched Game Six last night, with the Yankees leading three games to two. Perhaps I would be writing about the Yankees winning the World Series today instead of the Dodgers winning on Wednesday. We will never know.

However, we do know something. We know that Aaron Boone is not a very good manager. 

Boone certainly has his defenders. There are people who will point to the number of games he has won as the Yankees’ manager and the fact that in six of the seven seasons he has been the manager, they have made the playoffs., The Yankees always field a very competitive team. They have a very high payroll, and they pursue top players. Is it always a perfect roster? No, it is not. But it is always a competitive roster. The Yankees should make the playoffs every year. They have not had a losing record in over thirty years.

So, I don't believe Boone deserves an inordinate amount of credit for the Yankees making the playoffs or being a winning team. They are built for that, and they are expected to win.

There are also people who believe that Boone is simply a figurehead and that Brian Cashman and his analytics minions make all the decisions. I taught history for years and have heard a lot of conspiracy theories about a lot of things. I don't buy this one. Boone says that he makes the decisions. We all know the man has an extremely healthy ego and a high opinion of himself. So, I take him at his word. That being said, it is time to be realistic. Aaron Boone has been the manager of the Yankees for seven years and they appeared in one World Series, in which they were essentially blown out by the Los Angeles Dodgers. Aaron Boone is not a better manager now than he was when he started. In fact, he might be worse because he continues to make “rookie mistakes” after managing over 1,000 games. 

For the most part, Boone benches younger players in deference to veterans, even when those veterans are on the downside of their careers. He has no feel for the game. Boone does not adjust to in-game situations well at all. Boone is inconsistent, in that he doesn't always make the same move or non-move every time. Sometimes he will remove a pitcher too early and sometimes he will leave him in too long. It just seems that he always picks the wrong option. He has a habit of choosing poorly.

One of the reasons that was cited for bringing Boone in to manage the Yankees was that he was an excellent communicator. I have no idea how he communicates with his players because I am not in the dugout, but I don't see a lot of it on the broadcasts. Players will walk by him after hitting or on their way to hitting or on their way out into the field and Boone appears to say nothing. He stares off into space, spitting sunflower seeds or blowing bubbles with his gum. As noted, during the great collapse in Game Five of the World Series in the fifth inning, he was nowhere to be found. I have read comments by some players that Boone does not interact very well or very often. He is absolutely horrible at communicating with the media after the games. He often puts out statements that make no sense. His explanations frequently defy logic and in a term that was used in my job, he is not a reliable source of information. 

I coined the term Boone-proofing not to be cute or funny but to clarify that the Yankees needed to do things as an organization or as players to offset the managerial miscues committed with alarming frequency by Aaron Boone. The Yankees have to win games in spite of Aaron Boone, not because of him. This has been going on for far too long.

Aaron Boone’s contract is up. However, the Yankees do have a one-year option on that contract and could simply bring him back for next year. However, it is not that simple. There are those who will say that Boone deserves one more chance and that the Yankees should bring him back for that one year. The Yankees will never do that. They will not bring him back as a lame duck. If they bring him back, they will extend his contract. They will probably tack on another three years. I'm sure there would be an option on that contract as well. We would be looking at a total of eleven or twelve years. If the Yankees struggled again next year, the argument would be, “We can't let him go because we owe him three years. Let's just ride it out.” This could go on forever. My as yet unborn grandson will be writing a column saying that Boone should be fired after forty-two years of futility. Boone has been there for seven years. Right now, we are in the middle of a presidential election cycle. Essentially, Boone would be wrapping up his second term if he were a president or a governor. Just as the candidates always preach in an election, it is time for change. To quote George HW Bush, “There is a new breeze blowing.”

I think we need to step back and look at the evidence. Aaron Boone has been the Yankees’ manager for seven years. He has not won a World Series in that time. The one World Series that the Yankees were in on his watch, he was out-managed, and you could certainly make a case that he was responsible for losing two of the four games.

Based on what he has done, is there any reason to believe Aaron Boone will lead the New York Yankees to a World Series victory if he returns as manager? I don't believe there is. You can't simply point to the team and say that it will be a great team and they could win the World Series with Boone. That would be the case regardless of who the manager is. The question is, based on what we have seen, will Aaron Boone do anything that would improve the Yankees’ chances of winning the World Series if he were to return as manager. I don't see how anyone can answer that with a yes. To expect someone to suddenly do something he hasn't done for seven years and over 1,000 games, is silly. 

The Yankees do not need to bring Aaron Boone back for another year or even worse, another contract. It is time for a change. I have read reports that Boone is likely to return but as I noted the other day, likely to return and definitely returning are not the same thing. Frequently that is the interpretation of a reporter. Who knows what will actually happen. When Joe Girardi did not return as the Yankees’ manager, people were greatly surprised. The perception was that he was likely to return. He didn't. At some point, Aaron Boone will no longer be the Yankee’s manager. I think we have reached the point where that needs to occur.

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I would like to take a moment to wish a Happy 71st Birthday to my brother John, who will be celebrating in his sweat lodge.