5 managers Yankees missed out on by re-signing Aaron Boone

4. Rob Thomson

Hey! That guy that took the Philadelphia Phillies to the World Series in 2022! We know him. HE WORKED FOR THE YANKEES FROM 1990-2017! Then the Yankees had a managerial opening in 2018 and instead passed him up for Boone and let him walk to join the Phillies coaching staff, where he’s been for the last five years. Following Joe Girardi’s dismissal this season, he took over as interim manager and then earned the full-time tag plus an extension.

You might think this is irrelevant because Thomson already left the organization. But he was still bench coach heading into the 2022 season, sitting alongside Girardi as the Phillies continued to underachieve. Think he would’ve rejected a call from the Yankees to come back and potentially manage?

In defense of not making this move, it likely wouldn’t have been well-received at the time. Hiring a guy who’s never managed to replace a guy who just managed for the first time? The massive mistake here was having Thomson in your organization for 27 years and not taking him seriously as a guy who might be able to manage, only to see him take a team on a 10-year playoff drought straight to the Fall Classic after just 111 games on the job.

Yet another example of the Yankees failing to judge character/potential/personalities properly.