Yankees: 3 horrific overreactions from NYY fans after playoff exit

1. Aaron Boone Must Be Fired

Yankees manager Aaron Boone wasn’t the greatest, but he surely doesn’t deserve to get fired.

Before you start destroying nearby objects in a blind rage, let’s get this out of the way: the Game 2 pitching plan and pinch-hitting Mike Ford for Kyle Higashioka were front office decisions that Boone was forced to implement. No manager in their right mind would do either of those things, especially if their job depended on it (remember, Boone is not guaranteed to remain with the team after 2020).

And now everyone wants to blame Boone because he’s the perfect scapegoat. All the modern day baseball fans who are non-traditionalists all of a sudden believe there should be set-in-stone roles for pitchers. “Aroldis Chapman is the closer! Why is he coming in for seven outs?!” Those are the same people who were screaming because Boone didn’t let Zack Britton get the final out of the eighth inning in Game 4. Yup, they wanted the setup man to go two full innings, but not the closer who began his career as a starter.

Why don’t you take four minutes to make up your mind before blurting all of your inconsistent takes into a void?

Tell us, what was Boone supposed to do? Tell the front office to kick rocks and abandon the plans they instructed him to adhere to? Keep a laboring Cole in for the sixth inning and risk him giving up another home run? Bring in Ottavino in Game 5 to save Britton and Chapman from having to go more than one inning? There. Is. No. Right. Answer.

Boone brought in his best arms. It’s Chapman’s job to get Mike Brosseau out when he has an 0-2 count, not Boone’s. Hell, Kevin Cash brought in his closer in the FOURTH inning of this game and his bullpen managed to keep the Yankees’ offense at bay after he allowed a homer. Multiple relievers went multiple innings. But the $13 million Britton and $16 million Chapman shouldn’t do that because … it’s not entirely normal? Get a grip.

Boone moved batters around in the lineup to maximize production, and it worked for the most part. It resulted in four dominant wins. His decision to start Kyle Higashioka and Brett Gardner when he did yielded tremendous results. We’re sorry the Yankees left 18 runners on base in their losses. Boone can’t hit!

He saved the bullpen as much as he could after Game 1. He managed the bullpen perfectly in Game 4. Then he exhausted every last option when Britton and Chapman were fairly well-rested, and because Chapman doesn’t get the job done, Boone should be fired?

Whatever makes you sleep at night, I guess.

Yankees: 3 replacements for Aaron Boone in 2021

Will the Yankees replace Aaron Boone? Probably not! But it's worth speculating about, right? He's been a fairly large problem.