Yankees: It’s a little weird NYY haven’t extended Aaron Boone yet

The Yankees haven’t extended Aaron Boone yet, a few weeks after everyone said his multi-year return was assured. It’s nothing, right? Unless it’s something…

After Aaron Boone bore the brunt of the front-office-led effort to pull Deivi Garcia after a single inning in Game 2 of the ALDS, Yankees fans boiled to a fever pitch.

If that maneuver wasn’t “Fire Boone!”-worthy, then what was? Using Aroldis Chapman an inning too early in Game 5? Pinch-hitting Mike Ford for some reason in a 1-1 deciding game?

When the dust settled a few days later, though, all speakers from Hal Steinbrenner to Brian Cashman made it quite clear that Boone should feel safe and secure moving forward. For non-reactionary Yankees fans, this was good news — clearly, the rot that led to the Garcia decision goes far deeper than Boone, anyway, and we should’ve sent our ire elsewhere.

And yet, here we are several weeks later, and there has yet to be a peep of any kind regarding Boone’s contract status as he enters a lame duck final year of his initial deal. Is this nothing? Or is it something?

https://twitter.com/DanJFederico/status/1325797014064525312?s=20

This doesn’t suggest, to me, any wavering interest in retaining Boone. The front office was basically pledging fealty at his feet in the wake of the Yanks’ playoff loss. That doesn’t go away overnight. He’ll be back, and for several seasons.

So what’s the holdup? Could the team be working out a few other things which merit financial constraints that they’d rather introduce first? A manager’s money doesn’t get in the way of spending on players, of course, but maybe they’d rather their first dash of offseason pomp and circumstance go to an extension for a beloved player rather than an inevitable appeasement of a manager?

When Boone arrived three years ago at the tail end of the 2017 season, he came with a team option for 2021, which I think we all assumed was likely to be picked up — after all, which Yankee fan wanted to live in the reality where management had just made a massive mistake with the hire?

Love Boone or not, you have to admit he’s done a largely admirable job since the 2018 season, when he was a bit in over his head as a first-year manager contending with a fire-breathing Red Sox team in the same division. And he still won 100 games!

2019 was his coming out party, with the roster gelling beneath him. 2020 was a 60-game nothing during which he handled himself largely fine.

Boone will return, and likely for several more seasons. But perhaps the team is just waiting to line up a few more exciting announcements before making that official.

You have to admit, the abject silence is a little odd, though.

5 questions left unanswered by Brian Cashman, Aaron Boone and Hal Steinbrenner

The New York Yankees spoke to the media this week and we got a ton of insight. However, we still need answers to a few burning questions.