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

Truth be told, it’s a tad shocking the New York Yankees’ decision to re-sign Aaron Boone backfired after less than a year. It wasn’t the most egregious move of all time and many figured we’d at least be waiting a couple of years before one of his back-breaking decisions did the team in.

But all it took was the Yankees getting to the postseason. We should’ve known. We’ll be better next time.

Regardless of the context this is viewed in, the three-year contract (with a club option) given to Boone before the 2022 season was a mistake. He had no managerial experience coming into the job, and he showed throughout his first four-year tenure that he couldn’t elevate the Yankees despite the talent he was given.

Was some of it bad luck? Sure. Was some of it a result of injuries? Yup. Was some of it awful moves executed by general manager Brian Cashman? Absolutely. But every team deals with those outcomes to an extent. It’s no excuse for a manager not to make the right calls when it’s time to read the situation with baseball instincts.

Sadly, it seems Boone lacks in that department more that we could’ve ever imagined. This was Year 5. His postgamers are still devoid of personality and candor. His bullpen management is bad. His judgement with certain players is appalling.

And to think the Yankees could’ve had one of these five guys less than a year ago. What an oversight.

The Yankees missed out on these 5 managers after hiring Aaron Boone

5. Mike Shildt

The St. Louis Cardinals parted with manager Mike Shildt in shocking fashion last offseason … after he accumulated a 252-199 record in parts of four seasons, dug them out of the depths during a disappointing 2018 that saw Mike Matheny fired midway through, made it to the NLCS/won the NL Central in 2019, and reached the Wild Card round in 2020 and 2021. Really not bad considering he only managed two full seasons.

But there were “philosophical differences” that led to the split and the Cards hiring Oliver Marmol, who just watched his team choke massively in the Wild Card round. We sure it was Shildt that was the problem, St. Louis?

Anyway, whenever a managerial candidate of that magnitude unexpectedly hits the market, it’s probably best to conduct an interview, especially after your team fell woefully short four years in a row.

Shildt served as the Padres’ interim third base coach in 2022 and could be a managerial candidate for a few teams with vacancies this offseason. He wouldn’t have been Yankees fans’ first choice last offseason, but it would’ve been worth a call.

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.

2. Buck Showalter

Say what you want about the Mets choking, but they were exponentially better under Buck Showalter’s tutelage in his first year as skipper in 2022. If not for the Braves plowing ahead at a 115-win pace for the last three months of the season and the Mets’ top pitchers blowing it in the spotlight, the narrative could’ve been very different for this 101-win team.

Speaking of that, 101 wins! Two better than the Yankees. With a less talented roster. In just as hard of a division. After not having managed since 2018.

The worst part is, he knew this Yankees roster, having been a YES analyst for a few years. He worked for the team! They had a previous relationship when he was manager back in the ’90s and then rekindled that with his television job.

The Yankees let the Mets swoop into their own backyard and take him away, which made it all the more embarrassing. Yankees fans wanted this. Nobody would’ve faulted the team for going in the opposite direction in regard to managerial philosophies, even with Buck’s underwhelming postseason track record.

Instead, we’ll watch him in Queens for three more years. And the moment the Mets get farther than the Yankees in a season, fans will be validated in this stance.

1. Bob Melvin

It’s funny how every offseason another team does something you’d never expect, something you didn’t even think was possible. That team is never the New York Yankees — the Giancarlo Stanton trade notwithstanding, which hasn’t entirely worked out until this point anyway.

The Yankees have the power to make wildly unrealistic scenarios become a reality … but they’ve refused to have that be their style for over a decade now. Instead, it’s all by-the-book nonsense that serves to uphold a disingenuous image (or by-the-wrong-book nonsense like hiring a first-time puppet like Boone out of nowhere).

So when fans pondered last offseason about the Yankees poaching Bob Melvin from the Oakland A’s, many people scoffed at the idea. “You just think that because you’re the Yankees you can have whatever you want, huh? Spoiled fans thinking they can take what’s not theirs!”

Sure … but the San Diego Padres can do it? A team that, up until that point, had made the playoffs once in 15 years? A team that just had an epic late-season collapse that went from playoff aspirations to a sub-.500 record?

Yeah, but we’re the a–holes. Got it.

The fact that the Padres and general manager AJ Preller pulled this off just goes to show how badly the Yankees lack any sort of creativity. Laugh all you want about Melvin’s mismanagement of the Padres’ situation in Game 5 of the NLCS … but he got to Game 5! And it took him that long to make a mistake! Meanwhile, Boone cursed the Yankees’ playoff run beginning in Game 2 of the ALDS.

Melvin beat the Mets on the road and the Dodgers in the NLDS. The Yankees beat the Guardians in a series they made that much more difficult and then got swept by the Astros. These managers are not the same and never will be.

But the Yankees don’t see that. Or, maybe they do, and there’s some desire from the front office to avoid giving someone full autonomy to call the shots in the dugout. Whatever it is, while Boone is a problem, the Yankees’ way of doing business is the larger concern.