Does Aaron Boone kind of hate new Yankees agitator Alex Verdugo's vibe?

Before a calamitous sequence in the bottom of the 10th inning at Chase Field on Wednesday night, Yankees vibe creator Alex Verdugo emphatically shoved a monkey off his back with what appeared to be a game-winning tater into the depths of right field.

Luckily, despite the tides turning in the bottom of the frame, the Yankees did pull away for an 11th-inning victory, allowing Verdugo's homer and the ensuing dawg celebrations to win the narrative for the day. The crowd chanted, "Vol-PE!" en masse to pick up their young infielder after his earlier error. It was great. The scene was immaculate.

After the contest was over, Boone had walked Gabriel Moreno to get a pitcher to the plate, and everybody exhaled because Caleb Ferguson found the strike zone (allegedly), the Yankees' manager was feeling relaxed enough to take a little shot at Verdugo in the postgame scrum.

After all, nobody took more time to watch it fly than Verdugo himself, who'd earned it. But ... yeah. Took a while.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone threw (humorous?) shade at Alex Verdugo

Typically, we'd be 100% sure that Boone wasn't sending any sort of subtle message, and was laughing with Verdugo, not at him.

But the Yankees' newest outfielder ran afoul of Boone's close friend Alex Cora in Boston, and we all know that he was an Aaron Judge addition, not necessarily a unified front office decision. Add in Red Sox announcer Will Flemming claiming a few weeks back that Verdugo's lateness has persisted in New York the same way it did in Boston, and you have to wonder how Boone really feels about the team's current Vibe Bus Driver.

Then, of course, there's the edict that limits the number of chains Verdugo can wear per game down to one from his typical "three or four." That limit also reportedly came from Boone, according to the man himself.

You know ... not to jump to too high a conclusion ... but it sort of, kind of, at least a little bit feels like Boone might be as reticent to accept Verdugo as some Yankee fans were (not me, no way, certainly not this guy) in the wake of the surprising offseason trade.

Boone has always been a players' manager. But ... maybe not for this player?

If the Yankees continue to win and keep on barking, no harm no foul. But Verdugo's in his walk year, and you have to wonder if he's playing hard right now to both impress his teammates and spite the man in the dugout who doesn't want to hear quite so much jangling.