As far as Aaron Boone has been told, MLB Spring Training is a go as scheduled, and the Yankees will begin reporting to Tampa on Feb. 17. As he notes, “if the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s to stay ready and be ready to adjust as needed,” but whenever that preseason begins, Boonie is really excited about what’s coming south.
“I’m very excited. It’s been a long year and long winter, with the market and waiting on direction for spring training, but I think we’re really good,” Boone told Carton & Roberts on Friday. “I think we’ve been a championship-caliber team that hasn’t broken through yet. We’ve knocked on that door, and now we want to kick it in, because we’re one of those teams that legitimately has a chance.”
Two of his new toys, starters Corey Kluber and Jameson Taillon, also excite Boone, as does the crop of young pitchers coming up at the back end of the rotation.
“One of the good things about last year was that some of our young pitchers we’re excited about got their feet wet a bit, and had varying degrees of success,” Boone said. “With Jameson and Corey coming on, we acknowledge some risk there, but we know they’re healthy and really talented, and feel we have the depth to support them. Hopefully we can get them in position to pitch their best.”
So what kind of AL East will they be going into, given that the Rays have been sellers and losers while the Blue Jays have been buyers and adders, with Boston somewhere in between?
“I think the Rays are still there – what gets lost is how outstanding of a farm system they have, so they’ll have some guys this year burst on the scene so to speak, and I still expect them to be very good,” Boone said. “Toronto is getting better, and Boston has made some moves on the periphery – I expect that last year was probably a bit of an aberration, and with Alex (Cora) back I think they’ll be dangerous. And Baltimore, they’re getting better. As much as they’re stripping it down and trying to build up their farm system, they’re better this year than they were in 2020, and the year before that.”
What about those pesky Rays, who went 8-2 against the Yankees in the regular season and won a five-game ALDS despite DJ LeMahieu thinking the Bombers were the better team?
“Since I’ve been here, I’ve never felt we weren’t better than any team we stepped on the field with, but I don’t want to lose sight of the fact of how good a team they were and how good a year they had,” Boone said. “We felt that coming late in 2018, and last year, in a 60-game season with 28-man rosters, I think the way they constructed their team made them unique. They had a lot of good complementary parts – 13 or 14 pitchers gave them a strong bullpen, and 13 or 14 position players let them balance and be flexible and form an outstanding nine-man offense no matter what. They were a good and complete team who had our number, but hopefully we can flip that this year.”
One other thing Boone hopes flips? The empty stadiums, because as much as he was locked in on the goal in 2020, he definitely felt the lack of a crowd at times.
“It honestly wasn’t as hard as I expected, but when I really noticed it was our first series against Boston at home, and then again our first series at Fenway – that’s where you miss that edge the home field provides,” Boone said. “I was surprised by how easily I got locked into game mode, and with the piped-in crowd noise…I do remember when we were in the first round in Cleveland, they had it loud. If you didn’t look up, you felt like you were in the playoffs; it was cold, and a loud building, with the guy in left field beating the drum out there. Once games started, for me, it was easy to get locked into my world, but I did feel it the most the first times we played the Red Sox.”
Listen to Boone’s entire segment with Carton & Roberts below!
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