Aaron Boone’s alibis have become lullabies: The Yankees, with their manager publicly covering for them no matter how lazy or negligent or underperforming, are sleepwalking into a collapse that threatens to become a $300 million death spiral.
It’s getting so bad that even the guys who are paid to replace Boone – YES the analysts – aren’t doing it anymore. They directly and indirectly called out Boone after the Yankees’ 5-3 loss to the Boston Red Sox on Friday night.
But before we get to that, let’s recap recent events:
Ten days ago, Gleyber Torres ran to first base on a crucial ninth-inning comeback, and Boone tried to tell the media and fans that Torres—clearly sulking because of his poor season—was injured. When no one bought that crap, Boone was forced to bench Torres for two games to give him a mental “reset.”
If that benching was meant to send a message, backup outfielder Trent Grisham didn’t get it, because in Thursday’s loss that capped a humiliating three-game sweep by the going-nowhere Cincinnati Reds, Grisham’s laziness and lackadaisical effort turned a single into a double as the Yankee Stadium fans booed.
Grisham, by the way, is hitting .159. He was a first-choice player when the Yankees acquired Juan Soto. In a crucial ninth-inning at-bat Friday, he took three fastballs up the middle of the field in a three-pitch strikeout.
But even as a backup who owes his playing time to injuries, Grisham feels warm and cozy enough in Boone’s bosom that he can play with indifference.
And if Boone said anything to Grisham after his sluggishness against the Reds, DJ LeMahieu didn’t get the message, as the fading veteran — who would have already been DFA’d had the Yankees not been on the hook for another 2.5 years and $37 million — persisted on two consecutive baserunning plays Friday.
Instead of being one of the veterans the Yankees could count on as the season winds down, LeMahieu is now a basket case, hitting .175 after going 0-for-4 on Friday. LeMahieu is a two-time batting champion, but these days the Yankees celebrate when he hits a double (which is rare).
And while most eyes will be on closer Clay Holmes giving up a game-tying, two-out, two-strike home run in the ninth inning to Masataka Yoshida, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner should be alarmed that…
a) his manager tries to manipulate fans and the media;
(b) the same manager – who has not won a championship and could face a third consecutive season-ending collapse – is failing to get his players to play at their best; and
c) as the season draws to a close, the team manager and captain fail to rouse a team seemingly full of players who talk tough when they win but lack the courage to fight their way out of a slump.
Even Yankees commentators question the “leadership.”
“This is a moment where you really have to look in the mirror as a Yankees player and say, ‘You know what? This can’t go on like this.’ You’re one strike away from coming away with a satisfying victory,” said YES analyst and former Yankees star Paul O’Neill.
“It’s an unbelievable loss. Some losses are harder than others. As the season goes on, there are games where you think, ‘Wow, we shouldn’t have won that one.’ There are other games where you think, ‘Wow, we should have won that one.’ Tonight was a case of them letting a ball slip away.”
Former Yankees manager Joe Girardi added that the bad run of uninspired play is a question of “leadership” that keeps players from “putting their heads down and thinking, ‘Here we go again.'”
Meanwhile, YES studio analyst Jack Curry called Boone out for another ridiculous alibi.
In the third inning, LeMahieu hit what appeared to be a double play with a ball thrown to second baseman Enmanuel Valdez. But he missed the ball, then threw it to shortstop Cedanne Rafaela, who also struggled with the throw to first base — and LeMahieu was barely safe at first base.
On the next play, a grounder to first base, LeMahieu headed straight for a tag at second for the final out while a distraught Anthony Volpe raced toward home plate and failed to score before the final out, tying up the run.
In a postgame meeting with the media, when told that LeMahieu had persisted all the way to first base, Boone insisted that LeMahieu had run hard – yet another example of how Boone manipulated fans and the media to protect a player who deserved public criticism.
Seconds later, YES studio analyst Jack Curry set up the replay to prove that LeMahieu had run until the final strides, when he realized he had to hurry to beat the throw.
“That’s proof, those first steps right off the bat, that it’s not a hustle,” Curry said. “And I know Aaron Boone is protective of his players, and I know he has a great relationship with them, but I think if you show anybody who covers baseball, who’s in baseball, who follows baseball … I think DJ LeMahieu himself would say he wasn’t running hard.
“He ended up being safe after they missed the ball — twiceHe was still barely safe. … You’re a team that’s struggling right now, and the one thing you can control more than anything is your effort. Your effort has to be there every day. … That wasn’t the case with DJ LeMahieu running to first base.
Curry wasn’t done.
“I always go back to what Derek Jeter said, and I know I’m quoting a Hall of Famer, but Derek Jeter used to say, ‘Don’t let anybody outplay you. There may be people that are more talented than you, but don’t let anybody outplay you.’ And I think when you’re a team that’s in the situation the Yankees are in, hard work is going to get you out of that situation. And hard work means hustling. And this game wasn’t really a race against the clock,” Curry added.
The lack of enthusiasm is an indictment of a player, but also of a manager (and general manager) who tolerates it.
Asked about the cost of Volpe’s run to home plate, Boone said the shortstop didn’t know if the ball was fair or foul. But that doesn’t matter: Volpe has to run hard no matter what.
Now that times are tough, it seems that a $300 million payroll has bought undisciplined, mentally weak, sulky players who can’t get through tough times.
“We’re going to see what we’re made of,” Boone said after the loss.
We probably already know this. The Yankees have lost 15 of their last 20 games, fallen out of first place and been outclassed by the Orioles and Red Sox, division rivals who play down to the last strike and the last out.
Oh, yeah, and Boone’s players don’t bother to hurry.
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