Alex Rodriguez doesn’t believe the New York Yankees should move on from manager Aaron Boone.
In fact, A-Rod thinks the Bronx Bombers should give their skipper a multiyear contract to remain in pinstripes.
“I would give him a three-year extension,” Rodriguez said Tuesday on FS1’s “The Herd with Colin Cowherd.” “Aaron Boone did a fantastic job. If anyone thinks that Aaron Boone has anything to do with the Yankees’ failures, they’re wrong.”
Boone has been New York’s manager since 2018. He is not under contract for the 2022 season, but ESPN’s Buster Olney reported Tuesday, citing industry sources, that Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner seems inclined to keep Boone.
“He likes (Boone), and I don’t think he blames him for what happened,” a source told Olney.
Boone has drawn a lot of criticism since the Yankees’ loss to the Boston Red Sox last week in the American League Wild Card Game. The Yankees have reached the playoffs in each of Boone’s four seasons as New York’s manager, but they’ve yet to make good on their World Series aspirations, raising questions about whether the organization needs a new voice to get over the hump.
Rodriguez clearly isn’t buying that theory, instead suggesting the Yankees’ issues — and the issues of teams across Major League Baseball — reside elsewhere.
“I met with the front office, and they said, ‘We had a Wild Card Game. We had 30 people around the table making the lineup.’ What do you need 30 people, analytics people? What are you, a hedge fund? You making a $2 billion bet? You’re making a lineup,” Rodriguez said. “You think Joe Torre had 30 people? I’m not saying it was the Yankees. But it was a team like the Yankees. It’s too much thinking. You take half the IQ, you’re going to throw it in the ocean.
“Go back to Manny Ramirez. Just plays baseball. ‘See ball, hit ball.’ You’ve gotta be able to compete. You’ve gotta be athletic. You’ve gotta play defense. It’s not softball. You don’t put a right fielder in left field and a shortstop at second. (Derek) Jeter was shortstop. I played third. (Robinson) Cano (at second). (Mark) Teixeira (at first). Everybody knew where they were every place.”
The Yankees have won the AL East once under Boone. They’ve secured a wild-card spot in his other three seasons at the helm, with the furthest they’ve advanced being the ALCS in 2019.
Change might not be the worst thing for a prestigious franchise with 27 World Series rings seeking its first title since 2009. But is Boone really the issue?
A-Rod sure isn’t onboard with that logic.
