Tuesday Discussion: Boone?

January 9, 2024

***

This is a simple one, that when we posed it to our writers, we knew we'd get some differences of opinion:

Is Aaron Boone a good baseball manager?

Here are the responses from our writers:

***

Lincoln Mitchell - No.

***

Tim Kabel - He is not a good manager. He is a placeholder. He is a steward. He is not a leader. He does not think on his feet. He is not able to respond to crises or situations that require immediate attention. he is often just standing there, staring vacantly into space. I don’t think he’s the worst manager ever but, he is not good. I don’t believe the Yankees will ever win a World Series with him in charge. 

***

Mike Whiteman - The thing about looking at managers is that there are not a lot of metrics to break down a manager's performance. So, much of what we're expressing is opinion, and there are no shortages of opinions about Aaron Boone!

Here's what we know:

Aaron Boone's managerial winning percentage is .585, which ranks tenth all-time amongst managers with at least 500 wins.

The Yankees have outperformed their Pythagorean Win-Loss record four out of the five full seasons Boone has managed the team. Their cumulative record is seven wins more than the Yanks Pythag during his tenure. So by this measure the Yanks have outperformed the talent provided to him. 

Which makes sense. The universal consensus amongst fans and media is that the Yankees front office/ownership have not gone "all-in" on building the team since Boone was hired in 2017 and have made a long list of questionable personnel decisions. Yet, the Yanks have averaged 95 wins per season during Boone's tenure with these flawed teams. His 2019 performance, the year of "next man up" in which the team was decimated by injuries, was Manager of the Year caliber, and he finished a close second place in the voting.  

The thing that obviously holds Boone back from being considered a very good or great manager is that he has yet to lead the team to the World Series. His window of opportunity is likely closing soon, so 2024 is a crucial season in his managerial career. 

So in short, my answer would be that Boone is good, but has a ways to go to be considered great.

***

Paul Semendinger - (I wrote this the other day in a comment about Aaron Boone):

I think it's fair to say that Boone isn't a good manager.

I have never heard a player or opponent say, "Boone is great at managing." I've never heard anyone say, "Part of beating the Yankees is staying a step ahead of Boone." What they seem to say, to a person, is "He's a good guy. He comes from a baseball family. I like him."

We have also seen his decisions in real time for six years. They haven't been good.

And we have seen the Yankees being poor fundamentally - on the bases, situationally, and in the field. That all comes from the team's preparation which comes from the structure starting in Spring Training the manager creates.

Boone also hasn't been a good strategist. He seems innings behind time and again. And he hasn't grown in this area.

***

Cary Greene - My answer to this question is that the answer depends upon whatever criteria one wishes to believe makes up the word good. Good to some is finishing a race, while to others, it may be finishing in the top 100 and yet, to a select few, good might be defined to them as winning most of the races they run in. 

I ran all the way through college and into my early 40's and to me, I viewed good differently over the years, as I went along in my running career. Aaron Boone ranks 8th all time among Yankees managers in winning percentage, with a .585 mark. He's also 8th all-time in wins, with 509. Some may view Boone as fitting the definition of being a good manager simply based his rank in these two categories and who am I to argue with them about it?

Personally, I view good through a lens centered on winning, not consistently coming up short.

That said, it's pretty clear that the Yankees organization manages the team, not Boone. Pushing buttons in-game isn't really Boone's job, in fact, I doubt he even gets to see the buttons. Nor does he put together lineups or make tough pitching decisions. In fact, he doesn't really even coach. Boone's job is to talk to the media and feeds them what they want to hear, to pacify them and show that he supports each player on his ill-conceived, narrow skill set rosters year in and year out. 

Is Boone good at doing what the Yankees hired him to do? Sure! In fact, I'd even say he's excellent. But is he a good manager? Not if success is defined by winning championships. But he wins enough to keep Hal Steinbrenner happy, and since Steinbrenner runs the team and he likes and supports Boone, then yes, Boone is good. Good enough. Just like Stienbrenner wants the Yankees to be. 

You see, Hal Stenbrenner doesn't measure the word good like a champion might measure it. He's a different breed altogether. 

***

Ed Botti - On a macro level, to me a least, it’s not too difficult of an answer. Excluding the 60 games season in 2020, Boone is 476–334, a 58.7% winning percentage as a manager. Over 162 games that is a 95-67 record.

That in and of itself is very good.

However, when I look deeper on a micro level viewpoint, I see many things that I personally do not like. Whether that is a manifestation of the changing times and therefore the changing of the game is up to debate.

I do not like that he, (for lack of a better word) “babies” his players (IMO). I do not like that he does not employ a set line up night after night, and I do not like the way he manages his pitching staff.

I think it is a mistake to put the best hitter/power hitter in MLB as your 2 hitter.

But, most of all when I look at the Aaron Boone managed teams I see teams bereft of fundamentals, both offensively and defensively which may explain his 14-17 post season managerial record. There is a very thin line in professional sports between winning and losing. In most cases, it comes down to the team that makes the least amount of mistakes usually comes up the winner. Boone’s teams seem to make too many mistakes, for my liking.

Then my question become why?

If you were around to see Aaron as a player, it doesn’t make sense. If you were around to see his father as a player and a manager, it doesn’t make sense. I have been told (I am not old enough) that his grandfather Ray, played a fundamentally sound brand of baseball as well.

Aaron Boone played the majority of his career for Jack McKeon and his father Bob, in addition to Joe Torre for a brief stint in 2003 and Eric Wedge for 2 years. All of his mentors seemed to promote the fundamental skills needed to compete, and managed that way.

The $64,000 question then becomes why does he manage so drastically different then he played and how all the men that made lasting impressions on him managed?

Without being in the dugout, at pre-game meetings or at spring training it is hard to convincingly explain why a man that grew up in the game, and saw the game played a specific way, would then manage his team(s) in a considerably different manner.

And for that reason, and as crazy as this sounds after 6 seasons, I will lean towards putting it this way; I still do not know what type of manager his actually is.

I know this will spark some negative comments from some of our readers, but the one thing I can use to support my position, is that I have been told straight out by an ex-Yankee that frequents Yankee Stadium, that the games are pre-planned and mapped out before the first pitch is even thrown, and that Aaron is “instructed” in no uncertain terms to stick to the plan.

I have zero reasons to believe that I was lied to by this ex Yankee.

***

Ethan Semendinger - During his time as a manager for the New York Yankees, I believe the highlight (or highlights) of Boone's tenure have been the many ejections and the tendency to overdo it in an attempt to become a viral sensation. Does this stem from his time as a television correspondent? That I do not have a theory about, however if the overwhelming feeling about Boone is that his ejections are the only thing interesting about him, he must obviously not be doing a good job.

And, even with having 33 ejections in just 6 seasons at the helm, even then his rate of 5.5 per year falls below that of all-time ejection holder Bobby Cox (with, a fitting, 162 ejections over 29 seasons). If Boone was to manage that long (god help us all), he would fall short with a career ejection count of either 159 or 160 (I'll let you determine if he gets that final half ejection to his credit or not).

If that's not indicative by showcasing he cannot get everything out of his own abilities, how can I believe he can get the most out of the Yankees team?