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Aaron Boone will be back as Yankees manager after club exercises option

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1 month ago

November 8, 2024

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Aaron Boone will be back as Yankees manager after club exercises option

Aaron Boone will return as New York Yankees manager, the team announced on Friday after exerciseing their club option on his contract for 2025.

“I am grateful for the trust placed in me to lead this team. It’s a responsibility — and an opportunity — that I will never take lightly,” Boone said in a statement. “It’s a great privilege to show up for work every day and be surrounded by so many determined and talented players, coaches and staff members. Starting with Steinbrenner family, there is a collective commitment to excellence within this organization that is embedded in all that we do. I’m already looking forward to reporting for spring training in Tampa and working tirelessly to return the Yankees to the postseason to compete for a World Championship.”

The Yankees had 10 days after the World Series — Saturday, Nov. 9 — to trigger the option in Boone’s contract.

Speaking this week at the MLB general manager meetings in San Antonio, Yankees GM Brian Cashman didn’t sound like he was contemplating making a change heading into the 2025 season.

Despite the Yankees annually having one of the highest payrolls, it hasn’t equated to a World Series title under Boone. A 603-429 regular season record, three AL East titles, three trips to the ALCS and a World Series appearance — losing in five games to the Los Angeles Dodgers — on his managerial résumé has not quelled critics from wondering if Cashman should have made a change.

The mistake–filled series against the Dodgers showed off the 2024 Yankees’ weaknesses to a national audience. But Cashman wasn’t about to throw Boone under the bus for some of the decision-making.

“The manager’s job is so impossible, so you can play the game of second-guessing because you’re either going to make a move and it’ll be right, you make a move and it’ll be wrong and then have at it, right?” Cashman said. “So I think he’s a really, really good manager. I think that we’re lucky to have him. He’s done a great job.”

Now that Boone will be back, Cashman’s next item on his to-do list is trying to secure the long-term services of slugger Juan Soto, the top free agent on the market this winter.