Say hello to your New York Yankees.
The current Yankees organization is apparently perfectly comfortable with mediocrity and allowing their hated rivals in Boston to gallop past the most accomplished organization in the history of baseball.
It’s the only way to explain what the New York Yankees did Tuesday morning in granting manager Aaron Boone a new three-year contract. Boone, who has been manager of the Yankees since the 2018 season, will have three more years and a club option for the 2025 season to get the Yankees to their first World Series since 2009.
“We have a person and manager in Aaron Boone who possesses the baseball acumen and widespread respect in our clubhouse to continue to guide us forward,” managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner said in a statement. “As a team and as an organization, we must grow, evolve and improve. We need to get better. Period. I know Aaron fully embraces our expectations of success, and I look forward to drawing on his intelligence, instincts and leadership in pursuit of our next World Series championship.”
Boone was hired in December 2017, just a few months after the Yankees’ surprising ALCS run under Joe Girardi in 2017. Boone was hired at the time by general manager Brian Cashman as he was looking for a different message from his manager.
Well, Cashman and the Yankees got what they wanted.
The message from Boone has been bizarrely positive in a town that thrives on putting pressure on their teams in order to create a winner. Even as the Yankees struggled through the 2021 season, Boone continued to keep a positive outlook, routinely saying that he likes his team’s effort and approach at the plate.
After the Yankees weakly bowed out of the playoffs with a Wild Card loss to the Red Sox, Boone appeared to put some of the onus on the front office, saying that the “league has closed the gap on us.”
“We’ve got to get better in every aspect,” Boone said. “Because it’s not just the Red Sox and the Astros now in our league. Look at our division, the Rays are a beast, Toronto, there’s some teams in the Central that are better and better, teams in the West that are better and better, teams that have closed the gap on us.”
What gap Boone is referring to is anyone’s guess.
The Yankees have not made it to a World Series since Boone took over as Yankees manager, they’ve won the AL East division just once in his four seasons at the helm, and have made it to one ALCS. If there was ever a gap between the Yankees and the top of the American League, it was one with the Yankees craning their necks upwards, desperately hoping to get on par with the upper echelon of the American League.
Meanwhile, the organization that used to desperately crave the Yankees’ success is two games away from their second World Series in four years.
In 2018, Boston beat New York 3-1 — including a 16-1 shellacking in game three — in the ALDS and went on to win their second World Series of the decade. After revamping the roster and trading away superstar Mookie Betts, the Red Sox are at it again, up 2-1 on the Houston Astros in the ALCS.
New York has made some changes, though just not the one that was required. Following their Wild Card loss to Boston, New York parted ways with third-base coach Phil Nevin and hitting coach Marcus Thames.
Boone is reportedly well-liked within the organization and garnered the support of his players following the end of the season that brought with it more questions than answers.
“When you are the manager of this team and you wear the N.Y. and you wear these pinstripes, it’s a heavy burden,” slugger Aaron Judge said after the team’s season ended. “But a guy like Booney, man, he wears it with pride, shows up to work every day and gets us prepared the right way, keeps us motivated and gets on guys when he needs to.
“It’s been a pleasure the past couple of years to play for him and fight for him every single day. I could spend all night giving you reasons why he should still be the manager.
The Yankees will run it back once again, hoping for a different result with the same core.
Mediocrity. Apparently, it’s a Yankees thing.
Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers, and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to [email protected].
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.