NEW YORK — There’s a white sign with gold lettering inside Aaron Boone’s office at Yankee Stadium.
It’s Titus 2:7: “In everything, make yourself an example of good works with integrity and dignity in your teaching.”
There’s scant evidence that Boone has done anything to stray from the passage found in the Christian Standard Bible over his five years as Yankees manager. Ask those around the club everyday about Boone and they’ll tell you: He’s thoughtful, considerate, passionate and he eagerly shares the wealth of baseball wisdom ingrained in him from his family’s three generations in the game, stretching all the way back to grandfather Ray Boone’s major-league debut in 1948.
That doesn’t change the fact that owner Hal Steinbrenner, who’s very fond of Boone, will be under immense pressure to fire the 49-year-old after the Yankees’ latest playoffs failure.
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Failing via sweep in the American League Championship Series thanks to Sunday’s 6-5 loss in Game 4 to the Astros at Yankee Stadium will be seen as the biggest blemish yet on Boone’s record.
“This is as bad as it gets,” Boone said.
It could get worse in the offseason. Then again, maybe it won’t. Here are the arguments for keeping and firing Boone, plus our prediction.
FIRE BOONE: We’ll start with the obvious: Five seasons, zero World Series appearances. Is Boone the first in the majors to do that? Obviously, no. But Joe Girardi helmed the Yankees to a championship title in his second season and was given 10 years in the job. Joe Torre nabbed four rings in his 10 years. Boone hasn’t managed the Yankees over the hump. And while he’s the only manager to ever reach the playoffs in each of his first five seasons, he’s got a 14-17 postseason record that includes two trips to the ALCS.
DON’T FIRE BOONE: He’s been a steady presence. He’s 708-427 in the regular season, and that .603 winning percentage is the second-best among active managers, behind the Dodgers’ Dave Roberts (.632), who has a World Series title. It’s also the 10th-highest all-time winning percentage. When Boone was hired, the Yankees tasked him with improving the communication between the front office and the players, and for the most part, that’s what’s happened.
FIRE BOONE: There was some reason in the ALDS, however, to question just how good the communication was between Boone and his players. Boone was flayed on social media for turning to rookie Clarke Schmidt rather than closer Clay Holmes with a two-run lead in the ninth inning in Game 3, only to watch Schmidt blow it to put the Yankees down, 2-1, in the best-of-five. Boone said the Yankees weren’t comfortable using Holmes on back-to-back days considering his recent shoulder issues, but Holmes told reporters he told the team he felt like he could pitch, and Luis Severino publicly questioned Boone’s decision, adding that “nobody should be down in the playoffs.” And then there was Boone’s decision ALCS Game 3 to pull Gerrit Cole in the sixth inning with the bases loaded, no outs and a 2-0 deficit in favor of ... Lou Trivino, who promptly allowed all three runs to score. Trivino has been solid for the Yankees this season, but with essentially the season on the line, Boone went to maybe his fourth-best reliever and it cost him. There was also a lot of lineup shuffling.
DON’T FIRE BOONE: The Yankees were off to one of the best starts in franchise history this season. They were 61-23 and 15 1/2 games up in the AL East on July 8. They were just 33-40 the rest of the way. Hard to blame a lot of that on Boone. The Yankees were crushed with injuries, from Giancarlo Stanton to DJ LeMahieu to Anthony Rizzo on offense, to Luis Severino to Clay Holmes to Frankie Montas on the pitching staff, and so much more. Due to injuries, three of the five players the Yankees brought in at the trade deadline weren’t on the ALDS roster. And then Boone lost relievers Scott Effross and Ron Marinaccio in the days leading up to the end of the regular season. Boone just didn’t have the same team that he did in the first half.
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FIRE BOONE: It’s difficult to tell whether this final point is the most important or the least important to the Yankees. The majority of the fan base seems to want a change at manager, and the rest seem ambivalent, assuming Boone is little more than a caretaker and that the computers run the show. That’s a bad place to be. The “Fire Boone” chants came early this season, disappeared when the Yankees got hot, and came right back as soon as they began sputtering. He might be the most unpopular Yankees manager since Stump Merrill in 1990-1991.
DON’T FIRE BOONE: Who else are you going to get to replace him? When the Yankees gave Boone a new three-year deal in the offseason, the Mets hired Buck Showalter, who seemed to be the “hard-nose baseball player” type that the fan base wanted. Joe Espada was the Yankees’ bench coach, and has long been considered a manager-in-waiting. He reportedly recently interviewed for the Marlins’ manager job. Current Yankees bench coach Carlos Mendoza has interviewed for other managerial jobs in the past.
PREDICTION: It would be out of character for Steinbrenner to fire Boone, especially after just committing to him via a three-year deal. General manager Brian Cashman also wants to keep him around. The educated guess here is that Boone keeps his job.
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Brendan Kuty may be reached at [email protected].