View from a Hill
- ebotti0
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
Ed Botti
April 27, 2025
Since yesterday’s Yankee -- Blue Jay game was rained out, and Devin Williams was given a 24 hour reprieve from being subjected to 40,000 well-earned Bronx cheers, I thought I’d touch on a few issues to start our Sunday morning.
I have been hearing and reading quite a few people trash Aaron Boone for bringing in Devin Williams, especially Friday night.
Some even suggesting he be fired.
While I will never be mistaken for an Aaron Boone apologist by any stretch of the imagination (just go back and read my World Series ending piece -- if you need any proof), I also have to cut him slack when appropriate and be fair.
Let me start by stating that Aaron Boone did not orchestrate a trade last winter with the Brewers and send Caleb Durbin and Nestor Cortez to Milwaukee for Devin Williams.
When that trade was made, I scratched my head in wonder. I had no issues moving on from Nestor. But, didn’t most of the Yankee Universe spend most of the fall and early winter promoting Caleb as the next starting second baseman and leadoff hitter of these very same NY Yankees?
Why would they trade him, and Cortes for Williams?
Folks, before we all started witnessing Williams choke as the Yankee closer, he had a career Post Season ERA of 23.14.
Just like I stated then, why would the Yankees, a team with an annual single mission to win a World Series trade for a closer, that last I checked, watched a Pete Alonso home run eliminate his Brewers from the playoffs just 2 months earlier on a pitch he threw?
Boone, on Friday night, did nothing different than any other MLB manager would have done 25 games into a season. He went to the closer he was given to close out a game.
Do we really expect Boone to take a stand on April 24th and show up his boss? His boss is the person that just agreed that paying Williams (and his 23.14 Post Season ERA) $8.6MM to close games was a good idea?
His Boss was the person that decided trading a young leadoff hitting 2nd baseman to make room Jazz Chisholm would be a good move.
Not Boone. He didn’t make either trade.
On the topic of Boone, I also hear and read all sorts of speculation that Giancarlo Stanton and DJ LeMahieu will be given starting jobs when they return from the DL, simply because Boone “always plays veterans” over rookies.
There is thing called Loyalty. And Loyalty only works when it is a two way street. There have been many occasions over the last 7 years or so when either Stanton or DJ (and plenty of others) could have gone public with criticisms and complaints about Boone and his in game decisions.
Similar types of disloyalty and insubordination that we just saw this week with Ronald Acuña, Jr. of the Braves.
They have not. They both remained loyal to Boone; he will return that loyalty and at the very least give both of them the benefit of the doubt.
I see nothing whatsoever wrong with that.
Both are proud, older, injury prone players that have the odds stacked heavily against them of staying healthy.
Boone came from an old school baseball family. He learned a thing or two along the way about earning respect and loyalty.
You will not hear one complaint from his players about him. That is because it has always been a two way street.
Many people have become MLB managers over the course of the game’s history. There are 3 buckets managers fall into.
Great. Effective. Bad.
Bad Managers reveal themselves very early on, and are gone from the game as Managers fairly quickly. Some end up base coaches, hitting instructors, or pitching coaches. Bad managers do not stick around year after year, and devalue the asset the owners paid millions to acquire.
That is not how it works.
The other two groups, obviously have much longer shelf lives.
Great Managers feel the pace of the game and use intuition, instinct and awareness as the primary sources of decision making information, and analytics/stats as the secondary source of decision making.
Love him or hate him, Billy Martin was a master at that. He was 2 or 3 innings ahead of everyone else, according to his peers.
Effective Managers lack the internal knack to use intuition and proactively make moves based on feel or instinct, and instead rely heavily on pre-determined stats and game plans, develop strong levels of respect and trust throughout the clubhouse, and make effectual moves to win the games they should have won.
Boone is an effective Manager.
One last thing I have been meaning to point out that I forgot about all offseason, until last night when I heard someone mention Boone using Stump Merrill as the butt of a joke.
I want to take this moment to set the record straight on Stump Merrill.
His playing career was cut short due to a leg injury while playing in the minor leagues a total of 5+ seasons.
He began his managing career in 1978 with the West Haven Yankees of the Eastern League, where he led the team to the best overall record in the league, and followed that up with another first-place finish in 1979.
He was then off to Nashville in 1980 and 1981 and won division titles both years.
He was then off to manage the Ft. Lauderdale Yankees in 1982 and 1983, and won the league championship in 1982.
When 1984 rolled around he got promoted to AAA and led that team to another first place finish.
He was then promoted to the big leagues as Yogi Berra’s first base coach in 1985. When Yogi was let go, he went back to AAA Columbus to manage that team to a 75-64 record.
In 1986 he was back in the Bronx on Lou Piniella’s staff.
He was back on the Yankee shuttle in 1988 and this time was asked to go to AA Albany Colonie, where he led them to a league title in 1988.
He was shuttled off again in 1989 to the Prince William team, and won the Carolina League Championship.
In 1990, the Yankees fired Bucky Dent, and Stump got the job managing a brutal roster from Mid-June on.
He was asked to come back in 1991, marking the first time in 4 years that the Yankees had a manager come back for a second season. The 91 Yankees won 4 more games than they did in 1990.
By 1992, it was Buck Showalter’s time to take over the reins.
Stump loyally returned to AAA Columbus, and won another Championship.
There is more, but I think I made my point.
The next time you hear someone make fun of Stump Merrill, know that they have no idea what they are talking about.
He was a loyal Yankee his entire career and taught and won with young men every step of the way.
The Yankees play two today. First game at 1:35.
Ernie Banks would love it!!
Have a great Sunday.
there is something about loyalty for sure!! but I also want to believe that these players are grown ups. they should understand if they have failed badly at their job. I believe in second chances, but when winning games does matter, can you give 3rd or 4th chances? at some point, with players you very much need you probably should, but it should not be too quickly. grown ups should understand that a good manager is trying to put THE WHOLE TEAM in the best position to WIN and does not have time to let one player fail day after day
my recent comments on firing Boone- if his players love him so much, why have there been so many…
To be clear, I said I would fire Boone for taking out Carrasco with 67 pitches and a three-hit shutout to bring in a lefty side-armer to face Vlad Guerrero.
So the greatest feature of the Boone-era Yankees is their doctrine of Omerta? Boone plays veterans at replacement-level ability instead of giving young players an opportunity, and in return the soldiers, er, players don't criticize him for his bonehead in-game moves. OKaaaaaaaaaay. Anyone see anything wrong with that system?
You know who was cut-throat in his management of players? Casey Stengel. IIRC, he won a bit with that approach. One of my favorite Casey sayings is, "On a ballclub, you got 15 guys who like you, five who hate y…
In the Aaron Judge era, the Yanks have been close but have never made the right moves to push them over the edge to a championship, why? At $287+ million they are 3rd in payroll so they’re not cheap. Some of their contracts are head scratching, for sure. They are wasting a generational talent and they have to make a move soon. I’d love to hear your thoughts…good topic for an article.
if they play two games today, what part does Williams play?
what does Boone now do and say
with best laid schemes aft agley?
Great job on the history of Stumkp Merrill. That was fantastic. A+