NEW YORK — The manager keeps preaching patience while the losses pile up, and the fan base has heard this sermon before.
The Yankees have dropped 12 of their last 15 games. They fell out of first place in the American League East. They lost a home series to the Twins for the first time since 2014. Through it all, Aaron Boone has asked everyone to trust the process.
That trust is wearing thin. Boone has managed the Yankees since 2018. He has won a lot of regular-season games. He has not won a title. The World Series drought has now stretched to 16 seasons, and every summer slump revives the same question about whether the message in the clubhouse has gone stale.
Boone was asked this week whether his offense needed a reset. He pushed back on the idea of tearing anything down.
“We’re not going to overhaul and change,” Boone said.
That is the sound of a manager holding his ground. It also raises an uncomfortable point that few in the organization will say out loud. If the Yankees ever did decide they needed a new voice this season, they would not have to look far. The most intriguing option is already inside the system, running their top affiliate two hours up the road.
Why the pressure keeps returning
The Yankees entered the Tampa Bay series at 49-40. A four-game set with the first-place Rays was supposed to be a chance to close ground. Instead the skid continued, and the division lead they once held has flipped into a deficit. The latest 4-2 loss pushed the Yankees to a new low.
Injuries explain part of the collapse. Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton have missed time. The lineup that carried the team went cold all at once. Boone has leaned on that context all season, and it is fair context to lean on.
But fairness is not what a championship-hungry fan base measures. It measures October. Boone’s regular-season record has never been the problem. The postseason has. That gap is why the noise around his job never fully disappears, no matter how many games the Yankees win from April to September.
The name already in the organization
The internal option is Shelley Duncan, the manager of Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. He has been mentioned as a future big-league skipper for a while now, and his profile fits what the Yankees would want if they ever moved in a new direction mid-season.
Duncan is not an outsider. He came up through this system as a player. He was a second-round Yankees draft pick in 2001 and made his major league debut in pinstripes in 2007. He homered in his first Yankee Stadium at-bats and became a cult favorite in the Bronx before his playing days took him to Cleveland and Tampa Bay.
He has been building toward this. The Yankees hired him to manage the RailRiders in January 2023. He went 73-75 in his first year, then broke through with an 89-win season in 2024.
Last year raised his stock again. Duncan led Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to an 87-win campaign and a second-half title in 2025, and he was named International League Manager of the Year for the effort. Across three seasons he has piled up 249 wins and a .561 winning percentage. He is now in his fourth year at the helm.
Why Duncan would make sense
His resume is only part of the appeal. Duncan is regarded as a sharp baseball mind. He carries relationships with many of the young players who have passed through Scranton on their way to the Bronx. He also speaks the same analytical language as the front office, having worked as an analytics coordinator with the White Sox before returning home.
Duncan grew up in the game. His father, Dave Duncan, was one of the most respected pitching coaches in baseball history. The younger Duncan has spent nearly a decade managing in the minors, from the Diamondbacks system to his current post, learning how to run a clubhouse and develop talent at every level.
He also knows the current group. Prospects like Jasson Dominguez and Spencer Jones have played for him. That familiarity would ease any transition and give a young roster a manager who already knows their tendencies.
The risk that comes with any move
None of this means a change is coming. The Yankees have backed Boone through every prior storm, and the safe bet is that they do so again. Handing a first-time manager the reins in the middle of a season built around a deep October run would be a gamble.
A midseason promotion carries real danger. Duncan has never managed a big-league game. The jump from Triple-A to a pennant race in the Bronx is steep. The spotlight in New York has swallowed more experienced men.
The RailRiders themselves have hovered around .500 this season, a reminder that Triple-A success does not guarantee a smooth leap. Still, the pieces of a succession plan are quietly in place. The Yankees have a proven developer, a former fan favorite and a front-office ally waiting in Moosic if the questions about Boone ever turn into a decision.
For now, Boone remains the manager. He continues to preach patience. Whether the results arrive before the All-Star break, and before the noise grows too loud to ignore, is the story the Yankees cannot yet answer.
What do you think? Leave your comment below.
