After the Yankees lost the AL Wild Card Game against the Boston Red Sox, the attention centered on the game began to shift towards Aaron Boone‘s future in New York and whether he has managed his last game in pinstripes.
The 2021 season is Boone’s fourth year managing the Yankees, leading the team to a 328-218 record during that span. In each of those four years, the Bronx Bombers have made it to the postseason, but no further than the ALCS.
When questioned during the postgame conference, Boone made sure to give credit to the rise of other teams, both within the AL East and throughout the rest of the MLB.
“The league has closed the gap on us,” Boone said. “We’ve got to get better in every aspect. Because it’s not just the Red Sox and the Astros now in our league. Look at our division, the Rays are a beast, Toronto, there’s some teams in the Central that are better and better, teams in the West that are better and better, teams that have closed the gap on us.”
Boone’s comments may certainly be true. However, Yankees fans have been sure to voice their frustrations about Boone and GM Brian Cashman‘s inability to build and lead a Yankee roster to the World Series, which hasn’t been achieved since 2009.
Fortunately for Boone, star outfielder Aaron Judge came out in defense of his manager during the postgame press conference.
“There’s a lot of good answers for that besides being a great manager and leading this team the past couple of years, to winning over 100 games, his leadership skills being even-keeled through the ups and downs, the good times and bad times, that’s part of it,” Judge said. “When you are the manager of this team and you wear the N.Y. and you wear these pinstripes, it’s a heavy burden. But a guy like Booney, man, he wears it with pride, shows up to work every day and gets us prepared the right way, keeps us motivated and gets on guys when he needs to. It’s been a pleasure the past couple of years to play for him and fight for him every single day. I could spend all night giving you reasons why he should still be the manager.”
