Boone, like all Yanks skippers, always under microscope

There will be tremendous pressure on Dave Roberts with the Dodgers this year because of all the regular-season games his team has won in the past two seasons -- 217, to be exact -- and not won another World Series. But the Dodgers did win the Series three years ago. The Yankees haven’t won it all since Aaron Boone became manager in 2018, or even been to a Series since they won it all nine years before that. It is why no one is under more pressure than Aaron Boone this year and, really, every year.

There is no tougher baseball job than his.

That’s because it’s the Yankees, and because it is New York. Everybody talked about how there was a target on Buck Showalter’s back even before the Mets went after Carlos Correa because of all the money Buck’s owner spent in the offseason. There is that kind of target on Boone’s back every single year.

There are no easy managing jobs in baseball, of course. It’s just never easy being Boone. No figure in New York sports triggers more strong opinions -- and loud ones -- than he does.

There were even points over the second half of last season, when the Yankees turned into a .500 team after starting 64-28, that he heard “Fire Boone” chants at Yankee Stadium.

“We understand the expectations that come with putting on this uniform,” he said at the time.

But those expectations don’t change even though the Astros, who swept the Yankees in the American League Championship Series last October, have been better than Boone’s team since he took over for Joe Girardi. The expectations certainly won’t change now that Aaron Judge is coming back and Carlos Rodón is coming to town to join the best Yankees starting rotation in 20 years; it won’t change even with the questions about left field and third base and who the shortstop is going to be on Opening Day.

Boone has managed the Yankees for five full seasons and won more than 100 games twice and won 99 last year. He has made the playoffs every year, made it to the ALCS twice. He is the first Yankees manager in history to win 100 games in his first two seasons. But the Yankees lost to the Astros in six games in ’19, when Jose Altuve hit a walk-off homer at Minute Maid Park in Game 6. Then came the sweep last season. None of that was about the guy managing the Yankees. It was about the other guys being better.

It certainly wasn’t Boone’s fault when everybody except Judge stopped hitting over the second half of the season after that 64-28 start. There were second-guesses about Boone’s bullpen choices in the AL Division Series against the Guardians, because there are always going to be. But then Boone and the Yankees came from behind against a team managed by the AL Manager of the Year, Terry Francona, and finally won that series in five games.

The fact of things, and with all the money the Yankees spend on players every year, is that there hasn’t been a single time since Boone came down out of the ESPN broadcast booth to manage the Yankees when he had a clear advantage in talent and lost. When the Yankees went into Fenway Park in 2021 for the AL Wild Card Game against the Red Sox, his ace, Gerrit Cole, didn’t make it out of the third inning.

Alex Cora was the Red Sox manager for that one. He was the Sox skipper when they beat the Yankees in four games in the ’18 ALDS -- when Boone’s Yankees went up against what was probably the best Red Sox team of all time and played them four really hard games in the ALDS -- and had a chance to even things in the bottom of the ninth of Game 4.

Here is what Cora told me the other day about the manager of his team’s fiercest, and most famous, rival:

“He’s just solid all around. And consistent. In addition to that, he’s a master of handling the media.”

In New York, it is as much part of the job description as making out the batting order.

There is no question that Boone gets handed a roster every single year financed by one of the biggest payrolls in the sport, no matter how flawed that roster might be. Last year, he had Judge, who hit 62 home runs and was the best player in the sport. Boone has talent every year, absolutely. But that doesn’t mean he always has the best talent in the league.

In 2020, the Yankees lost Game 5 against the Rays when their closer, Aroldis Chapman, gave up an eighth-inning home run to Mike Brosseau. Chapman is the same closer who gave up Altuve’s homer in the ’19 playoffs. When that happens with your closer, you lose, no matter how easy a target the manager is.

Now there are people who like the Yankees to win it all. Maybe they will. Maybe then, Yankee fans will fully appreciate Aaron Boone.