Aaron Boone has been the signal caller for the New York Yankees for the last six years, but the bus could stop there following the conclusion of the 2024 MLB season.
Boone has coached the Yankees to five winning seasons in his managerial tenure. The Bronx Bombers have reached the ALCS and the ALDS twice each in that span. Boone has also coached Yankees superstar Aaron Judge to a historic 62 home runs in the 2022 season and that year’s American League MVP award, as well as ace Gerrit Cole to a 2023 AL Cy Young award win. New York has seen great success from a team and individual standpoint, but there have been a couple of roadblocks that leave something to be desired from the former Yankees player turned lead man that could usher him out of the Big Apple in short order.
Reports suggest Yankees need a deep playoff run to secure Aaron Boone’s job as manager
According to Jon Heyman of the New York Post, Boone may need to lead the Yankees farther than he ever has as manager in the 2024 MLB playoffs in order to sleep comfortably at night once winter rolls around, even if that won’t be with a World Series trophy next to him (h/t Kevin Hickey of The Sporting News):
“I would say, they have to get into the playoffs, first of all, and need to win at least one round,” Heyman said via Bleacher Report. “I think he is beloved by Hal Steinbrenner the owner. I think he is beloved by the general manager Brian Cashman and I think they desperately want to keep him around but if they’re knocked out in the first round, it’s going to be pretty tough so I would say that’s a pretty warm seat.”
How the Yankees’ finish to the season could make or break Boone’s job
Heyman’s assessment is sound. However, Boone has already hit the benchmarks that he outlined. The Yankees have struggled in previous years to get past the dominant Houston Astros in the AL. New York once had punch at the plate and reliability in the bullpen, but needed another elite arm in their pitching rotation when the going got tough in the playoffs at the beginning of the Judge era. Then, the Yankees got that when they added Cole in 2019.
Now, the Yankees are fortified with star power at every turn, and have added to that pre-existing mix another MVP-caliber slugger in Juan Soto, and developed a young talent in Luis Gil into a burgeoning ace within their pitching ranks.
The Yankees (69-49) are one of the favorites to come out of the American League, but will have their hands full against the conference-leading Baltimore Orioles (70-48) and a slew of teams jockeying for positioning in the standings. Should New York reach the World Series, teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers (68-49) and the National League-leading Philadelphia Phillies (69-48) have the star power to rival theirs.
A premature exit from the playoffs would look bad for Boone next to an 82-80 2023 campaign that saw the Yankees miss the playoffs for the first time since 2016. The addition of Soto is the biggest variable in Boone’s equation with the franchise at present. He and Judge are both playing at MVP levels and Cole has roughly seven more starts to round into form after returning from a right elbow injury on June 19. If they, along with strong play from Alex Verdugo and Giancarlo Stanton at the plate, Carlos Rodon Jr. on the mound, and Clay Holmes closing the show, can’t deliver on Boone’s game plan, things could go south for the latter.
Boone signed a three-year deal with the Yankees ahead of the 2022 season that runs through the end of the current campaign. Though he has a club option for 2025, his days in New York will be heavily predicated on how far he takes what is arguably his most talented roster yet in the 2024 playoffs.
