BRADENTON, Fla. — Yankees ownership and their front office don’t want Aaron Boone going into the season without job security beyond 2025.
They’re hoping it doesn’t happen, they’re actively negotiating and they’re optimistic it’ll get done this spring.
“I think so,” general manager Brian Cashman said Friday from the Pirates’ spring training ballpark during Grapefruit League Media Day.
Boone started earlier this week that he wants the same thing and the sides are expected to hash out a new deal prior to the Yankees’ regular-season opener against the Brewers on March 27 at Yankee Stadium.
The Yankees retained Boone last November by vesting a club option in his last contract, a two-year deal, but now want to lock him up to a new multi-year pact.
“Our main focus this whole winter has been on roster construction and some of this other stuff we’re just getting to, but our intent is to make sure Aaron Boone is going to continue with the Yankees past the 2025 season,” Cashman said. “Our intent is to find an extension. And so certainly I’ve been working through that and Hal Steinbrenner has been working through that with Aaron Boone.
“We’re hopeful at some point, sooner than later, that we’ll be able to officially cement something. Obviously we haven’t gotten there yet, but just give us time.”
This important development probably won’t sit well with legions of Yankees fans who constantly plead for a managerial change, but Cashman and owner Hal Steinbrenner believe Boone has done a great job since he came out of the ESPN TV booth with no coaching experience in 2018 to succeed Joe Girardi.
The Yankees still haven’t won a World Series since 2009, Girardi’s second of 10 seasons, but they ended their pennant drought last October.
Also, the Yankees have seven straight winning seasons and went to the playoffs six times with Boone, whose .584 winning percentage is 15th all-time and second active managers.
The way things have gone, Cashman is hopeful that Boone manages the Yankees for years to come, maybe as long or longer than Joe Torre, who won four World Series and six pennants in 12 seasons from 1996-2007.
“You always want to have the guy for as long as you can have, as long as it’s warranted and it makes enough sense and they control the room and obviously do a great job,” Cashman said. “And I think (Boone) controls the room. He does a great job.”
Cashman understand why fans get on Boone so much. They know it’s all about winning championships and Boone’s Yankees are 0-for-7.
As for the criticism that Boone often gets for lineup decisions and how he handles players, Cashman thinks it’s par for the course in New York.
“That comes with the job,” Cashman said. “It’s the Yankees manager. Whether it’s the manager of these other teams, too, you know you’re either going to be right or wrong. There’s no gray area. You know a decision you make is going to work or it’s not going to work. And when it works, it’s euphoria for that day’s win but not necessarily credit for the manager. But if it doesn’t work, the manager takes a lot of the brunt of it and that’s just the nature of the beast. I think Boonie understands that.
“The one thing I’m so impressed with is his temperament. There’s a lot of slings and arrows coming our way despite obviously last year having a nice run. It wasn’t ultimately what we wanted in the end, but at the end of the day he handled the ups and downs, the successes, the failures all the same way. And I think that is a strength. That is a benefit.”
Cashman believes a lot of his colleagues around the majors feel the same.
“I know that if he wasn’t the Yankee manager, he’d be a feeding frenzy for him to be a manager that’s coveted elsewhere,” Cashman said. “Objectively, that’s how we see it and I think we’re hopeful that we can find common ground to add to continue his leading our players from that dugout.”
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Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com.
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