The disconnect was easy to see if you looked for it.
After the New York Yankees‘ season ended on Wednesday night, captain Aaron Judge implored the front office to swing big this offseason, making his point by saying simply: “We’re the Yankees.”
But really, are these Yankees those Yankees? Because nothing about the scene over the last decade suggests that they are.
Those Yankees being the Yankees of George Steinbrenner, of quick managerial firings and huge free agent signings and the relentless pursuit of a championship in order to appease The Boss and to uphold a standard that had begun to be set by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, and was upheld by Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra, and continued on with Mr. October Reggie Jackson — and the list goes on.
These Yankees? They haven’t won a World Series since 2009.
These Yankees? They’ve held on to manager Aaron Boone for nine seasons despite just one appearance in a World Series (2024) that didn’t even go well.
In this era of Yankees baseball, they aren’t like those Yankees.
And maybe the most well-respected columnist in the city thinks it’s time to pull the plug on Boone’s managerial tenure.
Why Yankees Should Fire Aaron Boone
The Athletic’s Ian O’Connor makes the simple, obvious and clear case: The Yankees aren’t improving under Boone.
“They should go ahead and make that change,” O’Connor writes. “Don’t let the coming lockout and the hassles of making a managerial switch around one carry the day. Enough is enough. If nine lives cover it for a cat, nine seasons without a championship should cover it for the manager of a team that has won 27 World Series titles and none since 2009.”
O’Connor does make clear that the Yanks can be diplomatic about it. They don’t need to call it a firing.
“Booney is a good manager and sometimes a very good manager, no question,” O’Connor writes. “But he’s never been a great manager for an organization that used to treat greatness as a mandate, and not a mere suggestion. “Are the Yankees going to wait until Judge is 40 before they try a different voice with a different approach?”
The Yankees have actually done this before.
“Three decades ago, it didn’t make sense when the Yankees fired Buck Showalter, who had just delivered their first postseason appearance in 14 years,” O’Connor writes. “Joe Torre, a lighter touch, followed Showalter by winning four World Series titles in his first five seasons in the Bronx.”
More recently, so have the New York Knicks.
Knicks-Yankees Comparison
Tom Thibodeau got the Knicks to the outside of the promise land looking in. Mike Brown led them inside.
“Consider what just went down at Madison Square Garden,” O’Connor writes. “Tom Thibodeau took the Knicks to their first conference final in a quarter century by beating the defending champion Boston Celtics by a record 38 points in Game 6 of their second-round playoff series, and it didn’t make sense that he was bum-rushed out the door. Mike Brown, a lighter touch, followed Thibs by winning the Knicks’ first title since 1973. Then it made sense.”
O’Connor goes on to say that “the Knicks were getting better under Thibs,” but “the Yankees aren’t getting better under Boone.”
After nine years, is there anything else that needs to be said?
Yankees Should Fire Aaron Boone For Knicks Reason, Writes NY Columnist