NEW YORK — Two of baseball’s biggest markets reached for the same lever this season. Both pulled it. The question now drifting toward the Bronx is whether the Yankees ever would.
The Red Sox fired Alex Cora in late April. The Mets fired Carlos Mendoza on Friday. Two proud franchises, two former winners, two managers gone before the season reached its midpoint.
The Yankees sit in a different place in the standings. They do not sit outside the conversation about manager job security, because in New York that conversation never fully closes.
Aaron Boone has a contract through 2027 and a roster atop the American League East. He also has a championship drought that has outlasted every one of his playoff runs. That mix is why the firings around him matter.
How Boston and New York reached for change
Boston moved first, and it moved fast. The Red Sox dismissed Cora on April 26 after a 10-17 start, parting with the manager who delivered a franchise-record 108 wins and a title in 2018. Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow framed the move as a reset, saying the team still believed in its roster.
“It really comes down to the belief that we have the players and the belief that we have in the group to accomplish what we set out to accomplish by acting today,” Breslow said, per MLB.com.
The Mets waited longer and fell further. New York fired Mendoza on Friday with a 34-47 record, 13 games under .500 and riding a six-game losing streak. The final blow came in a four-game sweep by the Cubs that included a doubleheader the Mets lost by a combined 20-8.
Mendoza arrived with credentials. He led the Mets to the 2024 National League Championship Series in his first season and finished third in Manager of the Year voting. None of it held up against a roster that underachieved despite a payroll near $330 million. President of baseball operations David Stearns made the call.
“Carlos’ impact on our players, staff, and culture over the last three seasons has been transformative,” Stearns said in a statement. “Unfortunately, we know we are falling short and change is necessary to move forward.”
A familiar name with a familiar drought
The Mendoza firing carried an extra layer for Yankees fans. Before he managed in Queens, Mendoza spent years in the Yankees organization and served as Boone’s bench coach from 2019 through 2023. One of Boone’s former lieutenants just lost his job. Boone kept his.
The numbers explain part of the gap. Boone entered 2026 with a 603-429 regular-season record, a .584 winning percentage, and postseason trips in seven of his eight seasons. He guided the Yankees to the 2024 pennant, their first World Series appearance since 2009.
He has also never won it. Boone is 0 for 8 in title attempts. The Yankees fell to the Dodgers in the 2024 World Series, then lost in the 2025 division series to Toronto. That is the record both his supporters and his critics keep returning to.
Boone addressed his standing after last year’s elimination, pointing to the contract that still binds him to the club.
“No,” Boone said flatly when asked if he had reason to believe he would not return. “I’m under contract, so I don’t expect anything.”
Why a winning record complicates the case
The argument for keeping Boone starts with the standings. The Yankees entered Saturday at 48-33, atop the AL East and holding the best record in the American League. Boston and the Mets fired managers who were losing. The Yankees are winning.
That is the cleanest line between the Bronx and the two firings. Cora’s club sat in last place. Mendoza’s club sat 13 games under .500. Boone’s club leads its division at the halfway mark. A manager rarely loses his job while his team holds first place in June.
The structure around Boone runs deeper than the record. Owner Hal Steinbrenner and general manager Brian Cashman have backed him repeatedly. The two-year extension he signed before 2025, worth about $15 million over three years, was a direct vote of confidence after the World Series loss. Firing him would mean eating salary and overruling the two executives who chose him.
There is also the matter of replacement. Boston turned to Triple-A manager Chad Tracy. The Mets turned to player development executive Andy Green. Neither team had an obvious upgrade waiting. The Yankees would face the same question.
What would actually move the needle
The case against Boone does not live in June. It lives in October. Critics argue that the Yankees’ stability has hardened into stagnation, that the same playoff disappointments repeat regardless of roster. The walk-off hero of 2003 has become the manager who cannot deliver the final win.
The injuries sharpen the stakes. Aaron Judge is out with a stress fracture in his right rib. Giancarlo Stanton is working back from a calf strain. How Boone navigates that stretch, and whether the Yankees hold their division lead through it, will shape the second half more than any comparison to Boston or Queens.
For now, the present record is enough. A first-place team does not fire its manager in June, and the Yankees show no signal of breaking that rule. The firings in Boston and Queens did not change Boone’s footing. They only reframed the standard he is measured against. In New York, that standard has never been a winning record. It has always been a parade. Until Boone delivers one, the question will keep returning, no matter where his team sits in the standings.
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