Yankees: Aaron Boone defending Andrew Heaney shows he’s unfit to be manager

We know the New York Yankees weren’t going to maintain the pace that they were winning games during August, but not even the most pessimistic of fans could have expected a collapse of this magnitude.

How embarrassing have the Yankees been? Well they were just swept at home in a four-game series against the Blue Jays.

They didn’t hold a lead in the entire series and blew a prime chance to kick Toronto out of the playoff picture. Then came the Subway Series, which also went poorly.

As a result, the Yankees are barely clinging to the edges of the Wild Card race. The lineup can’t get an extra-base hit if their lives depended on it. The starting pitching and bullpen hasn’t been up to snuff, and neither has Aaron Boone’s decision-making.

Speaking of Boone, suffice it to say fans have grown tired of his hopelessly sanguine attitude following losses. While there’s something to be said for a manager defending his team amid adversity, we simply can’t defend his latest act.

While appearing on WFAN’s “Carton and Roberts” on Friday, Boone inexplicably came to Andrew Heaney’s defense. Get a load of this nonsense.

Aaron Boone’s latest comments on Andrew Heaney prove he isn’t cut out to be the Yankees’ manager.

“He’s been considerably less bad than the results.” Credit to Boone for thinking on his feet when co-host Evan Roberts was practically begging him to criticize Heaney, but this is simply indefensible and proves he isn’t fit to lead this team.

That obviously isn’t Boone’s only flaw, but nobody would deny that he’s kindhearted to a fault. Again, we understand he isn’t the type of manager who publicly eviscerates his players, but what happened to holding players accountable?

We hate to come down on Heaney, who’s really been an easy target amongst fans and the media, but any and all criticism of the 30-year-old lefty has been fully deserved. For starters, he’s allowed eight runs on 11 hits in just 4.1 innings of work since he was moved to the bullpen near the end of August.

Heaney’s overall numbers with the Yankees aren’t much better. Over 30.1 innings, he’s allowed an impossible 11 home runs and a .965 OPS.

Despite those numbers, Boone called Heaney’s number in the ninth inning of a two-run game on Thursday. How did the southpaw reward his manager’s blind faith? By serving up a solo home run to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. that zapped any momentum and energy the Yankee Stadium crowd hoped to engineer in the final frame.

That isn’t to say Heaney was the reason the Yankees lost. We’ve just seen enough of him over the last few weeks to know his performances don’t warrant being defended. While Boone didn’t have to pile on, he had no business defending Heaney after his latest failed attempt to pitch a scoreless inning.

Given everything that’s transpired this season, fans deserve better.

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