Yankees beat writers calling out Aaron Boone over instant Giancarlo Stanton flip-flop

It could be so easy for the New York Yankees to avoid needless controversy and nonsensical headlines, but as long as Aaron Boone is the manager that probably will never happen. However this organization communicates with him at the helm is nothing short of unprofessional.

And here we are, in Year 8 of Boone, and we can't go days without some sort of misstep. Over the weekend, the manager was asked if Giancarlo Stanton would be used in the outfield for the team's upcoming series against the Houston Astros.

Stanton is not a left fielder. He's spent most of his career in right field (1,077 games) when he's played defense compared to just 62 contests in left. But ballpark dimensions come into play when taking Stanton's limitations into account, and Daikin Park has a shallow left field with the Crawford Boxes. The distance from home plate down the left-field line is just 315 feet and just 366 feet from home plate to left-center.

So when Boone was reasonably asked if Stanton would move to left field given that tidbit of information (plus the bigger wall behind him and the fact he's played left field at Fenway Park within the last few years), it felt like we'd at least get a "we'll see."

Instead, Boone immediately refuted it ... only to backtrack three days later, as Stanton is starting in left field on Tuesday night ... per Boone's announcement.

Yankees beat writers calling out Aaron Boone over instant Giancarlo Stanton flip-flop

That has prompted a number of Yankees beat writers to pull out the receipts, and rightfully so. "Hey everyone, here's a reminder we asked a question and here's confirmation we were gaslit by the team once again!"

Even more baffling than the flip-flop is that Boone wasn't "considering" this just days before one of the Yankees' biggest series of the year? There was no conversation about how to deploy Stanton in a different ballpark when Aaron Judge still isn't ready to return to the defensive side of the ball?

Who changed the plans? Was there even a change of plans? Or was this a classic case of the Yankees refusing to let the media get ahead of what they were thinking/considering? They've done that plenty of times in the past in regard to playing time, roster moves, lineup changes, etc.

Much of the reporting on this has specified that Stanton has not played left field since 2023 at Fenway Park ... but he also hadn't played defense since 2023 up until Judge's injury a little over a month ago. At this rate, it doesn't really matter! Stanton needs to be utilized where the dimensions benefit him most, and left field at Daikin Park was as clear as day for everybody else to see.

And either Boone didn't see it (until he did), or the Yankees were trying to be secretive about something that didn't need to be.