Brian Cashman’s latest Aaron Boone defense stops one crucial step short for Yankees

In many ways, 2026 (the regular season, at least) was Aaron Boone's finest job managing the New York Yankees since 2019. General manager Brian Cashman essentially decided to run it back with a club that finished 94-68, and while there were some trade deadline reinforcements, they couldn't fully cover what essentially was a lost season for Aaron Judge. Boone still navigated the club to a nearly identical 93-68 record.

Speaking before the Yankees' elimination in Game 3 of the ALDS, Cashman pontificated on Boone's future. The much-criticized skipper will enter the final year of his contract in 2027, and Cashman essentially said that he'll be back to finish out the deal.

"I think Boone's a really good manager. We're here for a reason. There are a lot of reasons behind that, and certainly he's part of that," Cashman stated.

Dissect that a little further, though, and you notice something. Cashman is talking in the past and present tenses, not the future. What's missing here is the "...and he'll be back."

Does that mean that Boone could be on the chopping block anyway, and that maybe the long-time general manager didn't want to make waves before his team's most important game of the year? Possibly, and we certainly hope so.

Brian Cashman stopping short of guaranteeing Aaron Boone's return to the Yankees should open the door for a change

Boone had come under fire earlier in the ALDS for some of his decisions, and rightfully so. Anthony Rizzo recently came out in defense of Boone, and while his perspective as someone who has worked alongside the manager and has seen firsthand what goes on in the clubhouse that we as fans don't, his opinion is valuable. However, during his conversation with Yanks Go Yard, there was a nugget that, in light of the sweep at the hands of the Tampa Bay Rays, deserves more scrutiny.

"He's very prepared. He knows an idea and understanding of what he wants to do and he executes. His in-game decisions - and I know it's so easy, especially as a Yankee fan or a baseball fan, to nitpick everything he does, but there are reasons behind every one of his moves. There's numbers to back it up. Sometimes, he goes off-script and goes off feel," Rizzo said.

That last line about going off-script and making decisions based on feel seems to be worth further examination based on Game 3's tragic end. There were two big lineup decisions that Boone made, which clearly weren't supported by the numbers and instead were motivated by him listening to his gut. One worked, while the other failed miserably.

Starting with the positive, Boone decided to put Anthony Volpe in the starting lineup over Jazz Chisholm Jr. Volpe rewarded his manager's choice with a 2-for-4 evening that directly contributed to two of New York's four runs scored. Had it not been for instant replay, it would have been an even bigger night for the shortstop-turned-second-baseman, who was robbed of his Jeffrey Maier moment.

With right-hander Nick Martinez getting the start for Tampa, the numbers would've dictated that Boone start Chisholm Jr., but the skipper cited a "feeling" that Volpe was the better option. Of course, not talking to Chisholm Jr. about the choice beforehand probably wasn't the right move, but at least in this case, listening to his gut seemed like the right decision.

That wasn't the case for the other, bigger decision he made when writing out the lineup card. Boone decided to plug Trent Grisham into the leadoff spot, despite the fact that Grisham was statistically one of the worst leadoff men in the game this year, with at least 225 plate appearances batting first.

Grisham "rewarded" Boone's faith in him with an 0-for-5, three-strikeout performance. His final K of the night came with two outs in the bottom of the ninth and the tying run on second. Waiting on deck was Ben Rice, who had quietly been having an absolutely dominant postseason.

Asked following the game if he regretted the lineup decision, Boone said no. “No. I mean, look, obviously, we really struggled to score runs in the first two games, and I was pretty convicted on trying to find a way to be able to get Benny a chance to come up with runners on or be in a position to do that more often tonight. He was able to hit with a runner in scoring position and drove in our first run of the game. You hate when Benny doesn't get to hit there in the end. But it's a decision I made to try and create a little bit of traffic, and obviously it didn't work. But you're going to live with that.”

And therein lies the rub. All managers are going to have decisions that they'd like to have back. Some are more forthcoming in their assessments and willing to hold themselves accountable for making a bad call.

But the issue with Boone is that he makes more of these unforced errors than most, and then almost always has an excuse for why it was still the right move to make even after it was clear that his decision didn't work.

For that reason, we're glad that Cashman left the door open just a smidge. It allows us to have, as Boone said post-loss, a conversation another day.

Now that the Yankees have been eliminated in embarrassing fashion and have been booted from the ALDS in consecutive seasons by a division rival, perhaps a change will come. Cashman never spoke about Boone's future, so the opportunity to make a change is there.

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