There is no way that Aaron Boone keeps his job. No matter what happens in tonight’s Game 4, or in Monday’s Game 5, if they can get that far—which is a big if based on all that unfolded last night, during and after the game. No matter if he was actually the person who made last night’s baffling bullpen decision. No matter if his options were extremely limited due to injuries (Ron Marinaccio, Scott Effross, Michael King) and abandonment (Aroldis Chapman). No matter what, the Yankees will have a different manager in 2023.
The thing is, those decisions might not be Boone’s either, at least not entirely. As is the case with most teams, Boone and the Yankees’ front office map out ahead of time how the team should use its bullpen during the upcoming game. Boone’s job is to manage—so long as he does so in accordance with this plan. After the games, it’s his job to answer questions about the decisions that don’t work out. Many times, then, the modern manager’s job is to isolate front-office decision makers from public criticism, to fall on the sword when things go wrong.
This responsibility becomes even more damning for managers when their own players don’t know how or why certain decisions are made. That was the case last night with Holmes, yes, but also with Yankees starter Luis Severino, who said as much after the game when also asked about Holmes’s unavailability.
“He’s the closer,” Severino said. “I was surprised, but I don’t know if he was down. I don’t know if people should be down in the playoffs. That’s something you guys need to ask Boonie or [pitching coach Matt] Blake, but I was surprised not seeing him.”
We all were. One of Boone’s greatest strengths as a manager is his communication skills with the players, the media, umpires and the front office. Whenever he can, he tells his players in advance when they won’t be in the starting lineup. He hardly ever calls out his players publicly when they make mistakes. This irritates many Yankees fans, but it’s one of the reasons why his players love him. He yells at umpires and gets himself ejected frequently, at least relative to other managers across the league, to prevent his players from arguing and getting tossed. He is the bridge between the front office personnel making strategy decisions and the players who have to execute those plans.
But his reputation as a great communicator took a major blow last night. He didn’t let his players know their closer wasn’t pitching in a crucial game, and he failed to effectively explain why that was the case. In doing so, he became the front office’s perfect scapegoat for a season gone wrong. The aftermath of the decision, more than the decision itself, is why he is in his final days as the Yankees’ manager.
