NEW YORK – Aaron Boone is staying in New York for three more years.
Boone will remain in command of the Yankees after signing a new contract that confirms the confidence in a manager who managed to chain four seasons with a positive record but with repeated failures in the playoffs.
“A manager is only as good as the players he has,” general manager Brian Cashman said Tuesday, announcing a three-year contract for Boone that includes a club option for 2025.
Boone will be the first Yankees manager – since Miller Huggins in 1922 – to return for a fifth season after failing to win the championship in his first four.
“If I were available in the free agent market, I think I would be the number one candidate to fill managerial vacancies,” Cashman said. “There are several vacancies and we would have gone looking for someone with a profile like yours.”
Boone, whose home run sentenced the Yankees to the American League title in 2003, has amassed a 328-218 mark up front. His teams have made the playoffs four times, with a title from the East Division of the circuit as the highest achievement.
New York defeated Oakland in the 2018 wild-card game before falling 3-1 to Boston in the division series. They swept Minnesota in the 2019 division series and then lost to Houston in a league championship series that went six games away. Last year, the Yankees swept Cleveland in a wild-card series and then succumbed to Houston in a division series that went five games. They fell to the Red Sox in the wild card game this year.
“Aaron Boone was part of the solution, not the problem,” Cashman said.
The Yankees have not made it to the World Series since its inauguration in 2009 under Joe Girardi – the last full season before the death of owner George Steinbrenner. Boone was hired by general manager Brian Cashman and Hal Steinbrenner, who replaced his father as primary owner in November 2008.
“We have a person and manager in Aaron Boone who has baseball savvy and is widely respected in the clubhouse to move us forward,” Steinbrenner said in a statement Tuesday. “As a team and as an organization, we have to grow, evolve and improve. We need to be better. Period. I know that Aaron fully embraces our expectations of success, and I am confident that I will be able to harness his intelligence, instincts and leadership as we pursue our next championship. of the World Series “.
Boone’s new contract came as no surprise. Boone enjoys the support of the players and the team executives held him off blame for the ups and downs last season.
“I think I can take them to the top. That’s what I’m here for. And that’s why I’m coming back,” Boone said.
During a lengthy conference call, Cashman revealed that he will be looking to sign a new shortstop to the market to replace Gleyber Torres. With three weeks to go to the end of the regular season, the Venezuelan lost the starting title at that position and went to second base.
“The shortstop is a must,” Cashman said. “I think second base is the best thing for Gleyber.”
Cashman has been the manager of the Yankees since 1988 and has a five-year contract that will end in 2022.
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