The New York Yankees Manager position is both one of the most sought after, and most dodged positions in all of baseball. You are constantly on the biggest stage, with the world’s rowdiest fans, and the most pressure on your shoulders. It’s hard to be a Manager anywhere, but especially when the expectation is to win every year. Aaron Boone has certainly rolled with the punches since taking over as Manager in December 2017, and they’ve made the playoffs every year except 2023 when Judge missed extended time. So why am I calling for the Yankees to move on from Boone? Well if you watched game 1 of the Wild Card round VS Boston, you know.

Why remove Max Fried?

This one you can make the case that Boone actually did make the right decision. Fried’s pitch count was in the 100s and he was starting to get into trouble in the previous innings. But when Crochet goes almost 8 innings and gets the Yankees down to 4 outs by the time Boston turns to Chapman, you begin to wonder what could have happened if Boone had let Fried at least finish the 7th inning. The real mistake came when Boone decided to go to Luke Weaver out of the bullpen, with Ceddanne Rafaela up to bat, just an FYI Rafaela’s career OPS VS Weaver is 1.762. The obvious choice was Fernando Cruz, whose breaking ball style of pitching would have been perfect against the bottom of the Red Sox lineup.

Why bench Jazz and Ben Rice

Sounds like a no brainer right? The Yankees are facing a dominant left handed pitcher, so naturally you’d want a lot of righties hitting. Except Boone still started a lefty in Austin Wells behind the plate, a position Ben Rice has played numerous times this year. The other part that makes no sense is Boone inserted Jazz into the game in the 8th inning for “defense”, leading to Jazz’s first and only at bat being against Aroldis Chapman, who oh by the way, also throws lefty. Had Boone just left Ahmed Rosario in the game, maybe he would have knocked in some runs with the bases loaded in the 9th. Boone also had the opportunity to pinch hit Ben Rice for Austin Wells with a man on second in the 8th…. He stuck with Wells and he was punched out by Chapman rather easily.

It’s beyond obvious that the Yankees are the far more talented team compared to Boston right now. But October baseball is not about talent, it’s about strategy and coaching, which Boone does not. Alex Cora of the Red Sox managed circles around Boone in this game, and very well could do the same in game 2 tonight to eliminate New York. If I really wanted to nit-pick, there’s more mistakes Boone made, like not pinch running Jasson Dominguez for Paul Goldschmidt in the 9th, but I enjoy my mental sanity.

If the Yankees are eliminated in the Wild Card round one year after making the World Series, by a Boston team riddled with injuries, Aaron Boone should not be employed by the end of the week.