4 replacements for Aaron Boone as Yankees manager if predicted firing occurs

David Cone

At first blush, hiring Cone would fit in a worrisome bucket for a lot of fans recently scarred by Aaron Boone going directly from the broadcast booth to the dugout. Cone is a drastically different orator with a wealth of pitching knowledge, whereas Boone's only pedigree was his "baseball family" (which hasn't seemed to help his instincts much).

Additionally, analytics are in Cone's blood; he constantly spices up the YES Network broadcast by melding stories of his old-school approach on the rubber with the information he's gleaned in recent years from poring over analytics data and learning the "why" behind his natural instincts. The lack of experience in the dugout is a factor here, as well as the fact that Cone interviewed for the pitching coach gig a few years back and finished behind Matt Blake, one of the few pieces of this modern regime that seems to be working.

Would it be awkward and/or redundant having Cone in the same dugout as Blake? Would the Yankees be better suited with someone who brings a different emphasis to the table? That would seem like a far bigger drawback than the troublesome association with past participants in the "announcers-to-managers" pipeline.

And the hammer? What about Jorge Posada as his bench coach? For years, this modern Yankees team has tried to emulate the Derek Jeter-forward approach of the '90s dynasty with Aaron Judge at the "helm." But Jeter had an enforcer in Posada during those glory days; Judge does not. Posada could help lead a return to form from inside the dugout.