New York Yankees: Aaron Boone checks on Adam Ottavino and Gerrit Cole’s respective programs

By now, the New York Yankees were supposed to be playing official MLB games. However, due to concerns about the coronavirus’ outbreak that has killed thousands of people around the world, the league decided to follow CDC’s recommendations and suspend its activities indefinitely.

While MLB and the players’ association are seeking several avenues for baseball to return this year, it is unclear if medical and public health officials will allow it, and it is not a given that minimal conditions for the safety of players, fans and staffers are met. For now, the Yankees and the other 29 teams are patiently waiting.

Meanwhile, New York Yankees’ manager Aaron Boone keeps doing his job: managing the team. Lately, he spoke about the health of James Paxton, Aaron Judge and other injured stars, providing hope that they can be healthy whenever the season starts.

He is at home with his family, according to MLB.com, but Boone has also occasionally joined hurlers Gerrit Cole and Adam Ottavino to help them in their respective programs. In fact, both pitchers threw bullpen sessions with the manager on Wednesday.

Basically, Boone is monitoring the “offseason” activities of his players. He is helping them stay sharp in case the season starts relatively soon, which is a possibility.

“They’re both doing really well,” Boone said. “Physically, they’re in a good place as far as workload and keeping their arms going. It’s putting them in a good position once we get going.”

The Yankees’ skipper is taking advantage of Zoom calls

The Yankees’ manager also stated he has been busy getting in touch with everybody in the organization, including players, through Zoom calls. The communication has been very active in the last month.

Boone explained that the Yankees had a rather large call last week with several players taking part, in addition to coaches, strength and conditioning staff and front-office personnel. According to the Yankees’ on-field leader, it was a “casual, fun call,” that offered players a chance to ask questions and share their progress.

“It was a little bit of a state of the union, I guess, from my standpoint,” Boone said. “It was more a chance for guys to get on and just talk smack to one another, see how everyone’s doing, see everyone — which I think was cool for everyone. I know they have their different FaceTime and video game things they do together, but it was good to get on and see those guys, and have Tommy [Kahnle] come in and be silly on there.”