Now that we are two months into the season, it is a good time to evaluate how Aaron Boone has performed as manager of the Yankees.
When a new manager is hired, it takes approximately one minute for fans to start making judgments about that person. Then, once games start, it takes approximately one game for fans to make their judgments on how that manager has performed.
Aaron Boone has gone through that just like any manager does. The Yankees were losing games early on and Aaron Boone was getting torn apart by Yankee’s fans. Fast forward two months and there hasn’t been much at all spoken about Boone.
This is just the nature of the game. When you lose, people have to blame someone. Now that it’s been two months, I believe it is a good time to evaluate how Aaron Boone has done so far. Before I get started I want to make it clear that this is just a simple evaluation thus far. Even two months would still be an unfair time frame to declare whether a manager is good or bad.
I’m going to start off by saying that I think Aaron Boone has been perfectly fine thus far. The Yankees are 37-17 and he has done nothing that really makes you shake your head.
If we are going to talk negatives, I think they are all small gripes. Most of those gripes are things that all managers get flak from the fans on. Fans will never be satisfied with pitching moves, lineup decisions, etc. If I had one specific gripe, it’d be that maybe he has left Betances in for too many second innings.
Even the Betances gripe is one that is overblown. Other than that, he really hasn’t done anything wrong consistently. I think he has managed the bullpen well. I think he has done a good job with getting players rest and playing matchups in the lineups.
As a manager, it’s not all about managing. It’s also about the media and communication in general. I also think he has done a good job with this. As far as the media goes he seems to be accountable and he owns his decision. If his decisions are questioned, he has an explanation and he stands by it.
In terms of communicating with his players, that is something we as fans can’t really judge. The players seem to like him but it something we just don’t have insight into. By all accounts, the players like him and he has created good relationships.
All in all, Aaron Boone has done his job well. He has not done anything extraordinarily controversial and he has not made wrong moves consistently besides Betances.
Once the season is over, it will be a better time to truly evaluate Boone. After two months though, he seems like the right man for the job.