Quick thoughts after Hal Steinbrenner says Aaron Boone will return in 2023

Another year, for some reason. (Getty)

The only manager in Yankees history to return for a fifth season after failing to win a World Series within his first four years gets to come back for a sixth season. On Wednesday, Hal Steinbrenner told Mark Didtler he doesn’t see the Yankees making a change at manager, so Aaron Boone will return in 2023. The status quo remains.

“As far as Boone’s concerned, we just signed him, and for all the same reasons I listed a year ago, I believe he is a very good manager,” Steinbrenner told Didtler. “I don’t see a change there.”

Because Hal cited the “all the same reasons I listed a year ago,” here are the reasons he listed a year ago:

“We have a person and manager in Aaron Boone who possesses the baseball acumen and widespread respect in our clubhouse to continue to guide us forward,” said Yankees Managing General Partner Hal Steinbrenner. “As a team and as an organization, we must grow, evolve and improve. We need to get better. Period. I know Aaron fully embraces our expectations of success, and I look forward to drawing on his intelligence, instincts and leadership in pursuit of our next World Series championship.”

Steinbrenner also told Didtler that “(Brian Cashman) and I had some preliminary conversations” about the upcoming offseason, which is a pretty good indication Cashman will return as well. The owner doesn’t have “preliminary conversations” about the offseason with an executive who is not under contract if he’s planning to make a change. Cashman’s coming back.

(The last few times Cashman’s contract was up, he continued to work while the two sides hammered out his new deal. Sounds like that’s happening again. Nothing new here.)

Cashman’s job never seemed in jeopardy and I’m mostly fine with him returning because the bottom line is the Yankees are really good every single year, and that ain’t easy. If it were as easy as spending money, the Mariners and Phillies wouldn’t have just snapped the longest postseason droughts in baseball, and the longest now wouldn’t belong to the Angels and Tigers.

At the same time, yeah, I do think the Yankees need some new voices in the front office. I don’t know how long I’ve been saying that but it’s been a few years. There’s something to be said for stability and continuity in the front office. There’s also something to be said for bringing in a fresh set(s) of eyes and an outside perspective to avoid stagnation.

As for Boone, I expected him to return all along, and somehow this still feels like a letdown. I braced myself and am still disappointed. Is Boone the reason the Yankees get bounced in the postseason each year (by a team that operates the same way as the Yankees, only with better recent decision-making)? No. Is he also the reason the Yankees have averaged 99 wins in the last four full seasons? Nah.

Boone is an unremarkable on-field manager and his great strength, his communication, was brought into question this postseason after ALDS Game 3, when Clay Holmes and Luis Severino publicly questioned Boone’s decision not to use Holmes. Holmes had a shoulder capsule strain and those are bad news, but Boone also said Holmes was available, soooo.

Also, late in the season and during the postseason Severino and Gerrit Cole basically stopped looking Boone in the eye during pitching changes. There was bad body language all over the place, and maybe that’s just a function of another postseason disappointment, but this happened before the Yankees got eliminated. I can’t remember seeing stuff like that before.

With Boone and Cashman back, it feels like this vicious cycle will continue. To the Yankees, being good enough to get the postseason each year is apparently good enough. To the fans, it isn’t good enough. They booed the Yankees – including Aaron Judge – into oblivion in October. Fans are giving feedback! They’re telling the Yankees they’re unhappy! And still no changes.

So you have frustrated fans, an owner who comes off as apathetic, a front office that has made too many mistakes the last 18-24 months (we’re talking mistakes that meaningfully subtracted from the team’s World Series chances), and a manager who keeps getting outfoxed and maybe isn’t super popular in the clubhouse anymore. Winning cures all, but the Yankees aren’t doing the kinda winning the fans are telling them they want, yet they're unresponsive. This ain’t great.

Boone and Cashman are coming back – it’s not official but it might as well be – and now the focus shifts to improving a roster that needs help all over. What do the Yankees need this offseason? I’d say they need a catcher (one who can provide offense), a shortstop, a third baseman, a left fielder, a right fielder, a starter, probably a reliever or two, and maybe a first baseman. It’s a long list.

Maybe Anthony Rizzo won't opt out and the Yankees can plug shortstop and the bullpen from within. Addressing the other needs will take a lot of work, especially since the Yankees have to both rid themselves of their current problems while finding upgrades in several spots (like third base). The Yankees have to address those needs in a way that mask Boone’s strategic shortcomings too. It’s a big ask for one offseason. At least there won’t be a lockout to condense everything this winter.

Judge is a free agent and, even if the Yankees re-sign him (I hope they do!), they already wasted what are likely to be his best years. Certainly his best years in terms of cost vs. production. The Yankees behaved the way they behaved with Judge (resetting the luxury tax rate every few years, going for Plan B and C over Plan A, etc.), so why would I expect different during the Anthony Volpe era? Plus Volpe is unlikely to be as good as Judge. Not a knock on him. Judge is just so good. I would’ve liked a sign something will change moving forward, but thus far, nothing.

Like I said, I’m mostly okay with Cashman returning, though I’d like to see some front office changes to give the Yankees a fresh perspective. I don’t like Boone returning. I thought he should have been replaced last year, and honestly, I think him returning is like 50% the Yankees believing he’s a good manager, 40% the Yankees being stubborn, and 10% Hal not wanting to pay two managers. An uninspiring start to the offseason.

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