MLB: Aaron Boone – the new manager of the New York Yankees

The New York Yankees have appointed Aaron Boone as new manager and successor to Joe Girardi. The team’s former third baseman is known as a playoff hero, but also as a blank sheet on the manager’s chair. SPOX introduces the newcomer and explains why he was chosen.

In the end, it wasn’t really surprising that Aaron Boone was 35th in the end. the manager of the New York Yankees. Over the past few weeks, information about the interviews has gradually seeped through, suggesting that the analyst from the prestigious “Sunday Night Baseball”, the MLB’s flagship sports network ESPN, has sold very well.

In the days before Boone’s confirmation, candidates were eliminated in the media until only Hensley Meulens, the San Francisco Giants’ benchmark coach, and Boone were left. Boone stands for what General Manager Brian Cashman wanted: A communicative guy who could build a connection to the predominantly young players in the highly talented squad of the 27-time champion. And he is also open-minded about analytical data. He demonstrated all this during his eight years at ESPN.

Yankees fans will remember Boone well anyway, as he was the one who beat this iconic walk-off homerun in ALCS Game 7 against arch-rival Boston Red Sox in 2003. In the 12th century Inning, he drove Tim Wakefield’s first pitch into the stands in Left Field and made the old Yankee Stadium quake. Since then, the Yankees have only achieved – and won – one World Series (2009).

That was the only moment for Boone in Pinstripes. Shortly afterwards, his brief stay in the Bronx was over again. He ripped his cruciate ligament at basketball. Basketball, of course, is an activity that MLB professionals are contractually prohibited. The Yankees took advantage of this and terminated the contract with the Third Baseman. As a replacement, they finally got a certain Alex Rodriguez for the Hot Corner – so Boone indirectly helped to secure the title in 2009.

15 years later, Boone is back and doesn’t come back without a lot of question marks. The writing guild was skeptical, especially the local Beat Writers attacked the inexperience of the rookie manager, although he was not even officially introduced.

This inexperience is certainly a valid point of criticism, as Boone has done nothing at all in baseball outside of his career. Immediately after his premature retirement due to a heart valve defect, he entered the TV business and worked as an expert – first in the studio, then as part of the Monday night and finally Sunday night crew with commentator Dan Shulman and expert Jessica Mendoza.

But how important is long experience really for a manager? For A. J. The Astros were only the second manager station after he led the Diamondbacks in 2009 and 2010. When Joe Girardi took over the Yankees ten years ago, he had exactly one year of managerial experience – at the Marlins 2006. Both now wear rings.

The Yankees, on the other hand, are of a different calibre; after all, the title is demanded of them every year, although this has not always seemed realistic in recent years. With Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez and the other young savages, however, ambitions are likely to rise again. Boone takes over a position where he can only lose – unless he brings the Commissioner’s Trophy to the Bronx!

The point of experience was also raised in the interview with the Yankees. Hal Steinbrenner, the team’s owner, recently told us in an interview that he had concerns with an inexperienced manager. However, he limited that this would not be so tragic for GM Cashman. Boone is undoubtedly the choice of Cashman.

Boone himself recently said:”I’ve been going to Ballpark since I was three or four years old. The reason for this was his father, Bob Boone:” My dad was in the Big Leagues from my birth to my senior year at high school in the Big Leagues. All in all,” he summed up:”I would say that I have been preparing for this job for 44 years, so to speak,”said the 44-year-old.

Bob Boone spent 19 years as a catcher at MLB, won the 1980 Phillies in the World Series, was an all-star four times and won the Gold Glove Award seven times. He then spent three years managing the Royals and three years managing the Cincinnati Reds, where Aaron spent most of his career. Until 2003, when the season was traded to New York. Bob Boone has been Assistant General Manager for Washington Nationals since 2004.

Bob, in turn, is the son of former Major League All star Ray Boone, who won the World Series as an infielder in 1948 with the Cleveland Indians. Bret Boone, Aaron’s brother, also played in the Big Leagues for many years. So the name Boone has a long tradition in baseball.

Boone has a proven ability to communicate with the young players, a connection to the young players should not be a big problem due to his young age. He also brings experience from his family. So what about analytics, which is so important today?

Boone gives the right answer to this question:”There are some things you have to consider and there is a lot of great information that comes into the game. Today, more than ever, it is a partnership between front office and manager”, to put it in a nutshell:”We are an extension of the front office and part of the front office. How we collect information and pass it on to players is a very important part of the job these days.”

On the other hand, the history of the Yankees does not speak for success when it comes to rookie managers. They haven’t tried that since 1946. At that time the former catcher and later hall-of-famer Bill Dickey was allowed to try his hand with manageable success. However, he was only enthroned in the middle of the season.

All in all, Boone meets the criteria Cashman considered important, with excessive experience not appearing to be a major factor. In addition to Boone, Meulens and the recently resigned Carlos Beltran are said to have performed extremely convincingly in the interview – both of them have never acted as managers, with the exception of Meulens’s WBC appearance with the Netherlands.

The decision in favour of Boone is a refreshing one, Cashman wants to breathe a breath of fresh air and sees the role of the manager as clearly defined: he has to create a good atmosphere, make use of the enormous amount of analytical data and make use of it. Hinch just did this in the playoffs and hit the Yankees in Game 7 with a harsh amount of breaking balls because the analytics department recognized a weakness against these pitches in the Yankees. Cashman wants such information to be implemented.

The Yankees have a luxury squad that will be joined by some youngsters, all of whom promise great potential. Boone’s task now is to exploit this potential. No more, but no less.