Perspectives: It's Beyond Time For A Change

by Paul Semendinger

July 2, 2026

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The Yankees are playing a bad brand of baseball.

In fact, the Yankees are playing historically bad baseball. For proof, just see the columns we have run here with the stats from Katie Sharp the last few days - or go to her page on X. This is a historically bad stretch the Yankees are having. This is not just bad by Yankees standards, the Yankees are playing some of the worst baseball by any team in the history of the game.

Remember how bad it was with Bucky Dent or Stump Merrill or Dallas Green as the manager? This is on par with that. In some ways it is worse.

The main difference between those managers is that Aaron Boone's tenure has been propped up by a lineup of talented players having excellent to legendary seasons. Those managers did not.

Those managers also didn't last long, but for Boone, the Yankees seem unable to move on from his failed approach.

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Here's another big difference between those managers and Aaron Boone. They each had legitimate reasons to be the manager of the Yankees. Dallas Green had won a World Series. Bucky Dent and Stump Merrill had records of successful seasons managing in the minor leagues.

Boone has none of that. He was handed the keys to the kingdom and year after year, he has failed to deliver.

Aaron Boone never managed or coached a game anywhere before he was named manager of the Yankees. He has now managed the Yankees longer, by far, than any manager in their history without ever winning a championship.

Each season things for the Yankees get worse, the decisions and the statements get more bizarre and nothing changes.

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What has been Aaron Boone's answers for this bad playing - the historically bad playing?

He has none.

All he has are platitudes and meaningless comments.

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Instead, the Yankees simply make excuses.

Aaron Judge said that there will be accountability soon. Except, that accountability never comes.

And why is Judge promising this big discussion soon? Why didn't the captain gather the team after the brutal loss yesterday? Why not the day before?

The Yankees operate like a parent who makes meaningless threats. "Oh, you'll see..." "Do that just one more time." "This time I mean it..."

It would be refreshing to hear the manager (and the captain) actually making a statement that actually means something.

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Aaron Judge also says that the team isn't focused.

It is the manager's job to get the team focused. That's his responsibility.

And yet, in the middle of this historically bad stretch, when he could have been preparing the team or motivating the team, or doing any of the things it is necessary for a manager to do, Aaron Boone was taking batting practice.

In what world, anywhere, does Aaron Boone need to take swings when the team should be preparing for a game in the middle of a horrendous losing streak?

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Tomorrow Aaron Boone will still be the manager. It doesn't matter how badly the Yankees play, they just keeping going with the same playbook year-in-and-year-out.

And the fans suffer through the same nonsense year-after-year.

If ever there was a need for a change in leadership, from the very top, this is it. But the Yankees, from Hal Steinbrenner on down, including Brian Cashman, are content with this. This is the model they created - not greatness, just, simply, a team that can compete against a weak league.

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Since Aaron Boone took over as the Yankees manager:

• The New York Mets have had five managers

• The New York Giants have had five head coaches

• The New York Jets have had five head coaches

• The New York Rangers have had five head coaches

• The New York Islanders have had five head coaches

• The New Jersey Devils have had five head coaches

• The New York Knicks have had five head coaches

• The Brooklyn Nets have had five head coaches

And yet, Aaron Boone remains the manager of the Yankees. It's a fascinating case-study.

The Yankees, the franchise that used to be defined by greatness, sticks with a manager who demonstrates almost daily that he is in over his head - and been in over his head since he started.

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The Yankees team leader in batting average isn't hitting .300

He isn't hitting .290.

He isn't hitting .280.

He isn't hitting .270.

Ben Rice leads the Yankees in hitting at .269.

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There are fans that continually support Anthony Volpe, but we see him do something in almost every loss that contributes to that loss. Like Aaron Boone, the kid is, unfortunately, in over his head.

Yesterday Volpe got caught stealing with one out in a tie game in the bottom of the ninth, just after the Yankees stole a run to tie the game. That out, the one Volpe made, was the second out of the inning. The next batter, Spencer Jones, made the third out. Inning over.

Soon after, the Yankees gave the game away.

Stealing bases was supposed to be one thing that Volpe was great at. He has been caught stealing on 36% of his chances this year. That, simply, isn't good. At all.

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Anthony Volpe's Successful Stolen Base Percentage By Season:

2023 - 82.8%

2024 - 80.0%

2025 - 69.2%

2026 - 63.6%

Each year, rather than improving, Volpe gets worse at stealing bases - one skill he was supposed be elite at.

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Anthony Volpe was supposed to be demonstrating that he is a solid MLB hitter this year. His OPS+ is 91. He is still a well below average hitter.

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In yesterday's game the Yankees had the winning run on third with only one out in the bottom of the 10th.

Aaron Boone had a choice - send up Oswald Cabrera or Paul Goldschmidt to win the game.

Oswald Cabrera has no hits this year.

Paul Goldschmidt has been one of the most productive Yankees this season.

Aaron Boone chose Cabrera.

Cabrera struck out.

Goldschmidt never got in the game.

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There are times when Aaron Boone seems to manage for the story. "How great it would be if Cabrera got a hit."

He did the same when he brought in Nestor Cortes in the World Series. "This would make a great story."

There are many other instances when we see this.

The problem is the smart baseball move isn't to create a story - it's to put the best players in the best situations to win games. Boone doesn't do that. He hasn't done that.

And yet he remains the manager of the New York Yankees.

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I have been asking this for years. Please show one quote, anywhere, from a legitimate baseball person, that states that Aaron Boone is a smart manager.

All we get in praise of him are platitudes such as, "The players love him."

But no one, ever, has said that he's a good strategist or a good motivator or a good leader. Since the start of his tenure, we have seen other managers out-manage him. We have seen other teams out hustle the Yankees. We have seen the Yankees "lose focus." We have seen some of the worst fundamental baseball in the game.

The team isn't motivated. They aren't prepared. They aren't managed well. None of that is good.

I have known plenty of ineffective bosses whose employees supposedly "love" them. What they love is actually not having any accountability. They know with a different boss they'd have to work harder, take their work more seriously, put in more effort, be more prepared, and be accountable for their performance.

With Boone, the players know he wants to be one of the guys.

Sure, they love playing for him. That doesn't mean he's the right man to lead the Yankees if winning a World Series is actually their goal.

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People have said, for years that Aaron Boone is a great communicator, but so often he doesn't even speak in complete sentences.

Here is Boone explaining his reasoning for batting Oswaldo Cabrera instead of Paul Goldschmidt.

"Because...confidence that Cabrera can touch the ball too. Um. Yeah."

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I have made this point, for years, but Brian Cashman and Hal Steinbrenner must know that Aaron Boone's tenure is also huge part of their own legacies as the caretakers of the Yankees.

It is a shame that this is what has become of baseball's most storied franchise.