NEW YORK — The wound was still fresh, the disappointment too heavy. For New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone, thinking about tomorrow may have felt like it was too far ahead. He’d felt this pain before. It had been 21 years since the last and only other time he’d been in a World Series, losing while playing with the Yankees against the Florida Marlins. All this time later, that emptiness was back. He’d lost the World Series again.
“I’m 51,” he said. “I’ve poured my life into that.”
So, when the topic of Boone’s future came up, he grew slightly tense. He leaned both elbows on the table. He wrapped his arms around his chest like a man bracing for impact. Not an hour before, Boone watched from his usual perch on the dugout steps as the Yankees fell, 7-6, to the Los Angeles Dodgers in a deciding Game 5.
The final guaranteed year of Boone’s contract had just ended. The Yankees can activate an option in his contract that would keep him around for 2025 or they could move on. When would he allow himself to start thinking about his own future?
“We’ll see,” he said. “I don’t know.”
For Boone, there was a lot riding on this World Series, even if it wasn’t necessarily his job security.
Aaron Boone speaks on Gerrit Cole’s outing, managing Juan Soto, and facing Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman. pic.twitter.com/FPM7TWjS0O
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) October 31, 2024
By winning the pennant, he likely at least turned down the decibel level of his biggest critics, who frequently pointed out that he had lost in both prior trips to the American League Championship Series since taking over as Yankees skipper in 2018.
If the Yankees were considering moving on from him, there had been no public indication yet. General manager Brian Cashman said early in the playoffs that the club was “happy” with him as their manager. Before many postseason games — at home and on the road — owner Hal Steinbrenner would find himself visiting Boone’s office, checking in with him on the state of the team.
But Boone surely knows how things work in the Bronx. A World Series victory — ending the franchise’s 15-year drought — would have put him in good standing with Yankees fans for the rest of his life. Boone’s two most recent predecessors — Joe Torre and Joe Girardi — each won championships, and no matter how turbulent things became during their tenures, they’re now mostly remembered fondly.
Boone doesn’t have a ring. This year, he came as close as ever. The Yankees held a 5-0 lead going into the fifth inning of Game 5 before everything fell apart with sloppy play that has haunted the club throughout the season. Aaron Judge and Anthony Volpe made uncharacteristic errors and Gerrit Cole and Anthony Rizzo combined to seemingly each make mental errors on the same ground ball that led to the run that started a five-run Dodgers rally. A win would have forced the first ever Game 6 in a World Series that started with one club going up 3-0.
“I’m heartbroken,” he said.
He said he felt for his players.
“The ending is cruel,” he said. “It always is. I haven’t had that feeling of celebrating and going home.”
Boone has done lots of celebrating. He has the second-best winning percentage (317-212, .599) among active managers, behind only his World Series counterpart Dave Roberts (529-327, .618). He’s made the playoffs in six of his seven seasons at the helm of the Yankees.
In the clubhouse after the loss, Yankees players detailed what they thought about Boone.
“He’s always had our back,” Aaron Judge said. “He’s always been there for us. He’s always put us in the best situations day in and day out. He’s a guy that every single person in this room will run through a wall for. The culture we have here, it’s something special that we have going on herein it starts with him at the top.”
This season, some predicted turmoil in the Yankees’ clubhouse after winter additions of Marcus Stroman and Alex Verdugo and the trade deadline acquisition of Jazz Chisholm. But aside from a minor spat Stroman had with second baseman Gleyber Torres early in the year, there seemed to be little conflict within the team.
“Being in this position,” Judge said, “we wouldn’t have the guys that we brought in fit so well if it wasn’t for a manager like him to really just bring all of us together.”
Verudgo had a publicly rocky relationship with his previous manager Alex Cora in Boston.
“[Boone] means a lot,” Verdugo said. “He had my back. He always counted on me. He always knew I was going to play hard, even when I was probably in my worst struggles and worst offensive woes.”
“Boonie’s the man,” Giancarlo Stanton said. “I know how much he cares for us (and) what he puts into this.”
“Takes care of his players,” Cole said. “That’s what you want to play for in a manager.”
Late into the night Wednesday, Boone ambled around the clubhouse, still in a hoodie and baseball pants, the outfit he had worn during the game. Perhaps it was out of habit. Boone often checks in with players before they leave for the night. Except this time, there would be no tomorrow, and while it seemed likely he’d get another shot next year, it didn’t ease the pain.
“You get that close,” he said. “it’s heartbreaking.”
(Top photo of Aaron Boone: Alex Slitz/Getty Images)
