A Smart Move the Yankees Could Make...

by Paul Semendinger

October 26, 2026

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I have an article coming later this week that states, honestly, that I have come to the point in my Yankees fandom that I don't care enough to actually care about the team.

The owner and the general manager are out of touch with reality if they believe they have been building championship level teams these last many years. The manager is simply over his head. Instead of growing on the job, he regresses. He is the only person who believes in his brilliance and skills as a leader. I have never seen a person who has failed so much at the main task of his job be so sure of his own greatness.

The Yankees are just good enough to reach the postseason and get embarrassed. Except the owner, the general manager, and the manager are never embarrassed by this, they instead double and triple down and make excuses after excuses for why their team failed.

The Yankees have become a joke throughout the league and among many fans. They have lost their legacy and their identity - except if their identity has become as a second-rate contender.

I didn't go to any games at Yankee Stadium in 2026. I won't be going in 2027. At our family beach house, I cancelled cable TV. The only reason we had it was so I could watch the Yankees. I no longer watch them when I am away - or even at home as much for that matter.

The Yankees play a poor brand of baseball. They are sloppy. They are undisciplined. They don't have the passion for greatness that used to define the team. And yes, that was even true when the team was bad in the late 1980s. Mattingly's teams had fire and energy and passion. They didn't win, but they tried. I knew these were players, even guys like Mike Gallego, who were giving their all. We don't see that from many players on the team today.

My energy for caring about the Yankees has been seriously diminished. I have so many better things to do than invest in the Yankees because they are no longer serious about winning. One cannot, after seeing the press conference, and also their performances over the entirety of the Boone Era, believe anything other than that.

All that being said, one move the Yankees could make to show that they are serious about wishing to be a winner again would be bringing up Shelley Duncan to be a coach on the big league team in 2027.

Shelley Duncan has managed 1,020 minor league games. (Just think about that for a moment. When the Yankees hired Aaron Boone he had managed no minor league games.) By all accounts, it seems that Duncan has done a good job managing in the minors. He has certainly put his time in.

Duncan has also managed all of the Yankees top young players in Scranton. By all accounts, these players played well for Duncan. (They have not all played well for Boone.)

Putting Shelley Duncan on the bench would give him experience as a Major League coach. He would see the rigors and the efforts that go into coaching and leading Major Leaguers. This is (obviously) different than managing minor leaguers. (For all those who would like Duncan to manage immediately, in short, we do not know if he can. He needs time to observe and learn and see what it is like with the Major League team.)

Having Duncan on the bench would also put some pressure on Aaron Boone. He would know that his potential replacement is part of his staff. This could, possibly, make Boone approach his position differently. (One could say that Boone is doing the best he can, and if that is the case, there actually isn't any way he can do better.) But having Duncan there could, at least in theory, add some urgency to Boone's approach.

The flaw in this whole possibility though is that Duncan would spend a year watching Boone - which would actually be a huge negative. Aaron Boone has demonstrated that he is not a winner. In nine years he has never won a championship. In nine years, he was only able to get the Yankees to the World Series once - and when they got there, they were thoroughly embarrassed.

One would not want Shelley Duncan to learn from a manager who is ineffective. The goal would be to have Duncan learn from the greats.

In that light, the Yankees would have to also hire some solid legitimate Major League coaches who have been on winners - and some former Yankees who were also winners - to help tutor Shelley Duncan. These are the coaches Duncan would have to learn from. They would observe Boone and show Duncan what not to do. (I know this sounds harsh, but reality isn't always kind and the Yankees need to change the culture to be a winning one again - which it certainly and absolutely is not right now.)

These coaches would also be asked to facilitate conversations between Duncan and other excellent leaders and baseball thinkers across baseball. Duncan would need to learn from the best, not from those currently serving who are, factually, not good at their job. I would imagine many conversations between Duncan and other managers and coaches from successful teams and backgrounds.

If the Yankees were to take a path like this it would indicate (or at least it could) that the Yankees are finally getting serious about building a winning tradition. To date, the moves that they have made send a very loud, very very loud, and very very clear message that winning a championship is not (absolutely not) their highest priority.

In short, sticking with a manager who has demonstrated in far too many ways that he is not up to the task of leading a winning tradition is not the way the way to do build a winner or get fans to buy in. Unfortunately, that's the way the Yankees are operating right now. That needs to change. Immediately. Bringing Shelley Duncan to the Major League coaching staff would be a step in the right direction. It just might get me to care a little bit more believing that the necessary changes are on the horizon.