It’s safe to say that the New York Yankees haven’t lived up to expectations this year.
After a lackluster trade deadline, the Yankees are in the basement of the AL East. However, it’s not as bad as it sounds with the Bronx Bombers only 3.5 games back of a playoff spot.
Aaron Boone has been under fire for parts of the season but given all the injuries and poor performances, should he be looked at in a different light?
Yankees color commentator David Cone had high praise for Aaron Boone while appearing on Audacy’s original “The Bret Boone Podcast” this week.
“You could argue that Aaron has done his best managerial job this year,” Cone said (1:05:18 in player above). “The declining phases of some players, the struggles, the injuries, everything all put together. Look, they’re still above .500. They’re right there.
“It’s hard to put your finger on how much a manager’s really worth, how many games you’re better off of because of what a manager did, but it’s very subjective. Keeping the clubhouse together, having the respect of your players but also maneuvering.”
Boone has had to search for answers up and down the lineup with players injured and others underperforming.
“It’s been a different leadoff hitter every night. Searching for a hot hitter to put in the leadoff hole every night, something different,” Cone continued. “We’ve seen Oswald Peraza lead off a couple of games, just got called up, let’s try him at leadoff because Aaron’s just looking for somebody that’s a good hitter in that spot, not your prototypical leadoff hitter like Rickey Henderson – someone with some speed and some pop. It’s like ‘No, I’m searching for a body. I’m searching for anybody right now.’”
The Yankees’ most-used lineups were for just three games each and had Gleyer Torres leading off. Mind you, both of those lineups were with Aaron Judge on the shelf.
“In that sense, Aaron’s done a really good job this year with what he’s had to work with. We’ll see how it ends up,” Cone said. “We’ll see if there’s a big finish in store for the Yankees, they’re certainly capable of it because their bullpen has been solid, because Gerrit Cole’s having a Cy Young Award-winning type season, or at least he’s in that mix. You still feel like if Aaron Judge is Aaron Judge they’re going to have a chance. They can do it if they get a little bit of a hot streak going.”
It’s been a long season for the Yankees, but there are plenty of games remaining for them to get back into a playoff spot.
“There’s a lot of baseball left,” Cone said. “I saw the Mets blow a seven-game lead with 17 games left with Willie Randolph as their manager years ago.”
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