Yankees Aaron Boone should manage AL All-Star team, not Dusty Baker

Because he wasn’t the Astros’ manager that won the American League pennant in 2019, Dusty Baker should not be eligible to manage the AL All-Star team this July. That honor should fall to skipper of the runner-up Yankees, Aaron Boone.

Twenty-two-year veteran Dusty Baker has decided it’s a good idea for him to take the Houston Astros managerial job. Signing a one-year deal with an option for 2021, Baker will also get the opportunity to manage the AL All-Star team this July because the Astros are the reigning American League champs. However, that’s preposterous, and not just because this is a Yankees blog.

By now, the entire world knows that the Astros cheated their way to a World Series title in 2017 — and evidence leads many to believe that they may have continued their sign-stealing scheme during last year’s postseason run.

Yet, Major League Baseball refuses to strip Houston of their championship, while imposing curiously soft punishment.

According to Mark Feinsand of MLB.com, Commissioner Rob Manfred and the powers that be are going to further reward the Astros by allowing Dusty Baker, who hasn’t sat on a major league bench since the conclusion of the 2017 season, with the privilege of managing the AL All-Stars on July 14 in, of all places, Los Angeles.

More from Yankees News

• Yankees analyst Cameron Maybin projects surprise landing spot for Gary Sánchez
• Yankees swipe intriguing minor-league FA lefty flamethrower from Braves
• What does Carlos Rodón’s new jersey number mean for Domingo Germán?
• Red Sox living in different financial ‘galaxy’ than Yankees Killer Rafael Devers
• Yankees slice surprising fan favorite off roster to make room for Tommy Kahnle

Although Baker had nothing to do with that 2017 Astros club, he’ll be representing the organization that cheated the Dodgers out of a seven-game series victory. That should go over real well at Chavez Ravine.

It’s almost as if Manfred and MLB genuinely enjoy stirring the pot. As it stands, dozens of ballplayers have already come out fiercely against the ‘Stros’ cheating ways, which should lead to some exciting at-bats this season — no matter which city Dusty’s bunch visits.

While the rule of a pennant-winning manager getting to lead the league’s biggest stars during the Midsummer Classic has been in place since 1934 (the second All-Star Game ever), there have been 11 instances of a pennant-winner not managing an All-Star team the following season.

Therefore, because of A.J. Hinch’s one-year suspension and subsequent firing, now more than ever, a different manager should be selected to lead the AL in 2020.

Naturally, the first option should be to appoint Aaron Boone. As the skipper of a Yankees club that battled through six hard-fought games against the Astros in the ALCS, it makes perfect sense to reward Boone because his club was the AL runner-up.

Even if the Astros didn’t cheat in 2019 (big IF), Baker played no role on last year’s Houston team — and giving him the All-Star Game honor with no merit is completely baseless.

Regardless that it was the Yankees that finished second the AL when all was said and done, I’d feel the same way no matter which club it was that lost in the ALCS to the Astros. Select that manager instead.

Otherwise, MLB could take a page out of the NBA handbook and name the AL manager from the team with the best overall record at the halfway mark of the 2020 season. This way, no one can accuse MLB of playing favorites to New York — although nothing the Commissioner’s office has done this offseason would lead non-Astros fans to believe so.