By now, every Yankees fan has watched the video of Aaron Boone slamming a table after another bad loss on Saturday. The manager, who was like Mr. Rogers in baseball, finally lost it. It shows again how quickly the Yankees are falling apart and also how desperate Boone is to stop it.
Boone has been standing in front of the YES cams for more than five years, and he has never lost it. His players know they can count on him because he is always calm and steady. But Boone lost it on live Television, which informs me 2 things about how he was feeling.
First, he needs help badly. Whether the open-handed smack was unplanned or planned, Boone needed to demonstrate he’s had enough. That message wasn’t just for people who watched YES. He knows that the owners are watching, all the way up to Hal Steinbrenner.
I don’t think Boone’s job is in danger yet, but the Yankees are in a bad spot that is getting worse quickly. His team has been giving up for the past month. They don’t have a boss in the dugout any longer. Boone was recruited to be Mr. Nice Guy, however, if he wants to keep his job in the Bronx, that won’t be enough.
And this brings us to the 2nd important fact: the pointing fingers in the clubhouse. I have to think that Boone knows this. It was surprising to hear Aaron Judge yell at his teammates for not doing anything during Saturday’s 5-2 loss to the Blue Jays.
It’s important to know that Judge is careful about what he says when the camera is on. There are never any slip-ups. The batter clearly knew what he was saying when he talked to reporters. Judge said more about what he had already said, just to ensure that his accusation was clear.
It is not clear if Judge was speaking about just one Yankee or about all of them. But everything points to a squad in trouble, just like Boone’s performance a few minutes earlier. The Bombers appear and sound like they have lost, which is a big change from when they were so confident earlier in the season. No team was more arrogant. Even getting on the ground in the Bronx was scary for the other team.
It feels like a very long time ago. What used to be a 15.5-game lead is now cut in half. The Blue Jays have only lost six games, but all of a sudden they can smell blood. Every day, the Yankees look more and more like the 1978 Red Sox.
There’s no doubt that George Steinbrenner would have already fired Boone. The three-year deal Boone got last winter wouldn’t have been enough to save him. The Boss wouldn’t have cared about the money. He wouldn’t have given it a second thought to find a tougher boss.
But Boone has three things going for him. First, Hal doesn’t want to make big changes in the middle of the season as his father did. In comparison, the Baby Boss is weak. He tends to prefer to let his subordinates do the dirty work of firing people.
Second, Boone is safe because GM Brian Cashman will stand by his manager from the beginning of the season to the end.
As long as the GM backs Boone, he will have every chance to turn things around for the Yankees. And this is where the Yankees’ 3rd charm arrives in the wild card. This is their backup plan in case they lose their lead in the division.
Unlike in 1978, once the Red Sox returned home after falling down at the Yankees’ feet, the Bombers of 22 have a way to get into the playoffs through the back door.
This year, there are three wild-card spots, so it’s almost impossible that the Yankees won’t make it to at least the 1st round. Even though it would be embarrassing, the Yankees might be that anxious.
To be fair, Boone isn’t the only reason why the Yankees are falling apart. He couldn’t stop Giancarlo Stanton & Matt Carpenter from getting hurt. No one could have predicted that Frankie Montas and Andrew Benintendi would have New York nerves after the trade. And Boone can’t make Gerrit Cole the trustable bulldog he was in 2020 & the 1st half of 2021.
Cole gave up four runs to the Blue Jays in six innings. It was another lackluster performance in a year that has been up and down. Talent scouts tell me that the Yankees would have been better off beginning Nestor Cortes in the Opening game of the playoffs if Cole hadn’t pushed back. I don’t think Boone would want to fight with his ace, who needs a lot of care.
Still, it will take a big change to get the Yankees to pay attention. Boone knows he has to give up something. If he doesn’t want to switch Cole for Cortes, he can begin by not even using Albert Abreu in a close game again. He can tell Cashman to call Clarke Schmidt from Triple-A. He can also say something more powerful than “we need to play better.”
No matter what Boone decides, he can’t just keep going as before. Under Boone, the Yankees have turned into the worst team that money can buy. It’s ugly, and it might get worse.
The Bombers might become the worst team in baseball history, something Boone would never be able to erase.
What do you think, leave a comment below?
