For the third consecutive year with Aaron Boone at the helm, the New York Yankees underachieved, failing to win a World Series title.
Yankees principal owner Hal Steinbrenner knows it, too, apologizing to fans for the outcome of the season during an interview on Tuesday, but Steinbrenner one guarantee about next year: Aaron Boone will be back.
“That’s just a fact,” Steinbrenner said.
Boone has won the American League East just once – last year – while the Yankees have been knocked out of the ALDS by divisional rivals Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays, and the ALCS by the Houston Astros last year.
His harshest criticism came after Game 2 of the ALDS last week when the Yankees decided to pitch rookie Deivi Garcia as an opener before calling on J.A. Happ out of the bullpen.
But Steinbrenner was supportive of the strategy, saying that it lacked execution on the players part.
“I know this is a source of great debate. I thought the logic was sound,” Steinbrenner said. “We’re not the only team that employed that plan… Bottom line is in order for a plan to be successful the different components of the plan have to be well-executed. Happ struggled and he struggled significantly and the plan failed.”
Boone was not the only culprit who received criticism in that strategy, but Brian Cashman did, too. But Steinbrenner seems to be satisfied with Cashman as the GM.
“It’s been good,” Steinbrenner said. “We’re just going to have to keep plugging away.”
On offseason spending
While Boone and Cashman are safe, this will likely be a busy offseason for the Yankees with lots of decisions to make regarding players like DJ LeMahieu, Gary Sanchez and Masahiro Tanaka. But the Yankees may not necessarily spend big money as they have in years past. The pandemic and zero gate revenue have impacted all teams, including the Bombers.
“There’s no doubt we sustained significant losses this year. More than any other team in baseball,” he said. “It’s just been a crazy year. We’re gonna have to see what we need, what that’s going to cost and we’ll go from there like we do every year.”
On LeMahieu
LeMahieu has probably been the Yankees best player the last two seasons. He won the batting title this year following a career-year in 2019. Yet, he is 32 years old and will likely command a significant amount of money in free agency.
“I think I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t recognize what a contribution he made to the club and how good of a player he is,” he said. “So I recognize both those things. I’ll leave it at that.
On Sanchez
The biggest blunder on the Yankees this year was Sanchez and his struggles at the plate. The 27-year-old catcher essentially lost his starting job and was benched in the playoffs for Kyle Higashioka, raising questions on whether or not his time with the Yankees has come to an end.
“Yeah, is it surprising? I guess we’ll just have to see about next year, going forward,” Steinbrenner said. “Incredible talent and he’s going to keep working his backside off and we’re going to keep helping him in every way we can and if all goes well, we’ll get him back.”
Was this season a failure?
“I look at the successes of any season -- and failures -- overall our objective is to win World Series championship. We failed in that endeavor. Is the entire season a failure? No. … I look at the season as a whole … there were positives and negatives along the way.”
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