In his first two seasons managing the New York Yankees, Aaron Boone has led the club to a 203-121 record between both seasons. He’s brought them to the playoffs both season, finishing in the ALDS and this season they finished in the ALCS, just two games shy of the World Series.
People can say that the team is winning in spite of Boone, and they’ve only been so successful because they have a loaded roster. However, this couldn’t be more wrong.
All the things the manager does behind the scenes gets overlooked by the fans. But every mistake they make gets magnified to make the manager look bad. We saw this during this year’s postseason. The media continuously picked on Boone because of his decision to bench Stanton and continue playing Encarnacion, along with a few of his pitching decisions.
These are all fair arguments, but Boone has done more than people realize. After all the injuries the Yankees endured this year, he had a big part in selecting the guys who came up from Triple-A. The “next man up” motto was pretty much because of him. Boone did a fantastic job of this.
Another great thing Boone did for the team was resting the relievers at the end of the season for the postseason. Even though the season didn’t end the way everyone wanted it to, the pitchers weren’t the problem.
Considering everything Boone had to deal with in regards to injuries this season, he should hands-down win the manager of the year award. The New York Yankees had no business being World Series contenders this season considering everything they went through. What Boone was able to accomplish this season is nothing short of special.