The Yankees Have No Accountability With Aaron Boone as Manager

The Yankees lost two of three to the White Sox, one of the worst teams in MLB, a team that sold half its roster at the trade deadline. Folks, these are end times for the men of Aaron Boone as they are now 59-56 and 5.5 games out of a playoff berth. It’s deplorable how this team has played in 2023, and this dreadful series is yet another indication of just how far this franchise has fallen.

I just noticed this on Monday morning, after the last newsletter went out, but even dated by a few days, I thought it was an ideal topic to lead off with today since there’s really not much left to talk about with this Yankees team.

Last Saturday, Boston manager Alex Cora benched Alex Verdugo because he showed up a couple hours late to the clubhouse before the Red Sox game against the Blue Jays. Verdugo apparently has done this before, so Cora benched him. Earlier in the year, Cora benched him for not running hard on the bases so clearly, they have an issue with each other.

I bring this up to augment my complete lack of respect for Aaron Boone as a manager. Last Sunday, Giancarlo Stanton was in the lineup, one day after jogging home from second base and getting thrown out by half a mile, a play that was as bizarre as any we’ve seen this year. Stanton just flat out jogged, apparently because he’s terrified of pulling a leg muscle. The guy is chiseled in stone, but he’s so fragile that he can’t score from second base on a single to right-center because if he tries to run hard, his legs are going to explode.

Yet after the game, Boone completely let him off the hook, essentially saying that when he’s not running in a straight line - meaning when he has to round a base - things get really difficult for the 34- and going on 54-year-old Stanton. “Sometimes between when he’s going straight line and sometimes if he gets his steps not timed up right, he gets himself into a tough spot,” Boone said.

Unbelievable, not only the fact that that’s probably true, but that Boone didn’t come right out and say that Stanton has to be better than that. In typical Boone fashion, rather than calling out Stanton for being incapable of performing the most basic of baseball skills, running, the milquetoast manager, as he always does, makes excuses.

On Sunday, he changed his soft stance ever so slightly by saying, “Wasn’t a great look” but then he continued on with the nonsense by doubling down on, “but nothing other than him just making sure he doesn’t put himself in a dangerous position with the amount of things he’s had lower-body wise the last several years.”

Cora would have benched Stanton on Sunday for that play. Cora would have benched many Yankees this season for some of the baseball buffoonery this team has exhibited. I think many other managers would have, too. But here again, this is another reason why Boone is such a terrible manager. He’s a glad hander, a soothe sayer, a participation trophy kind of guy who tries to spin everything to the positive even when it makes him look like clueless and weak.

And because of that approach, there’s no accountability for the Yankees. They make idiotic base running mistakes, brain fart fielding blunders, and that’s on top of the incredible ineptness of their offense, yet Boone sits in front of reporters twice a day - before and after the games - and just makes excuses.

No one’s feet are held to the fire on this team; no one gets called out publicly even though that’s exactly what the situation has called for on numerous occasions, Stanton being the most recent. Everyone just goes along making their millions, losing games and then having the delusional gall of following the manager’s lead and telling us that everything is OK, they’re gonna get it figured out. My favorite line is, “We know we have talent in this clubhouse.”

If it was 2017, yeah, there’s talent in that clubhouse. Now, it’s a bunch of old, broken down veterans who can’t hit and can’t run, augmented by a number of scrap heap pickups who have never been and never will be key components on an MLB roster, and a few younger players who clearly aren’t what the Yankees thought they would be when they drafted or acquired them.

There are no exciting players on this team right now, and there sure don’t seem to be any in the farm system, no one you can point to and say, “That guy is going to be a star.”

Don’t tell me it’s Anthony Volpe, or Oswald Peraza, or maybe No. 1 prospect, outfielder Jasson Dominquez who’s struggling to master Double-A pitching at Somerset, or No. 2 prospect, catcher Austin Wells, who is still kicking around in the minor leagues and is already 24 years old.

Where is the Yankees’ Ronald Acuna Jr., or Elly De La Cruz, or Juan Soto, or Julio Rodriquez, or Adley Rutschman, or Gunnar Henderson, or Luis Robert, or Wander Franco. I could list a hundred guys here and I still wouldn’t get to a current Yankee. It’s just sad, and it reminds me of the late 1980s when those teams began to get old and it led to some of the worst times in franchise history in 1990 and 1991.

Watching the 2023 Yankees, that’s the feeling I’m starting to get. Unless they make massive changes in the offseason, this is not going to be much better in 2024.

Here are my observations on the three games against the White Sox.

Aug. 7: White Sox 5, Yankees 1

➤ Embarrassing losses have become commonplace in 2023, and here was another one, losing to one of the worst teams in MLB who entered the game with a 45-68 record. The White Sox traded half their roster at the deadline, and it was reported last weekend - and confirmed by ex-Sox reliever and new Yankee Keynan Middleton - that the clubhouse is a dysfunctional disaster with no rules, no accountability (sound familiar?) and players are at odds with each other. This is who the Yankees lost to on Monday, and again on Wednesday.

➤ Sox starter Dylan Cease held them hitless until the sixth. Of course, he also walked seven batters so the Yankees had all the opportunity in the world to win this game. Instead, they went 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position (and the one hit did not drive in a run because DJ LeMahieu runs slower than I do). They finished the night with eight walks and six hits, but scored just one run, that on a sacrifice fly by Billy McKinney in the seventh. To be fair, in that sixth inning they could have scored three but with the bases loaded and two outs, Jake Bauers was robbed on a hot shot to first by Andrew Vaughn who then got up and beat him to the bag. If that ball had gotten past Vaughn, all three runners would have scored but hey, this is MLB and guys are gonna make plays.

➤ The Yankees loaded the bases three times - twice with nobody out, once with one out - and scored one run, the McKinney sac fly. It’s almost impossible for a major league team to be this inept at the plate. Combined with Sunday’s loss to Houston, the Yankees left 28 men on base. It’s the first time in their history in a two-game span where they stranded 28 runners and lost both games.

➤ Gerrit Cole was terrific for seven innings. He made one mistake and it cost him, a two-run homer by Vaughn in the second. However, he gave up back-to-back singles to start the eighth, and Tommy Kahnle came in and shit all over himself. Brutal outing. First, he booted a bunt which loaded the bases, then he gave up a sac fly and a two-run double by Luis Robert. In typical Kahnle fashion when the inning ended, he went into the dugout and started smashing things with his glove. But as I said after he destroyed that fan a couple weekends ago, at least that guy has a pulse.

➤ A note on Boone. He got ejected for an MLB-most sixth time this season, but on this occasion, he had good reason. And man did he put on a show. Laz Diaz is unquestionably the worst umpire in MLB not named Angel Hernandez and his performance in this game was embarrassing for both teams. It was astonishing how many calls he missed, so I was fine with Boone lighting him up. How Diaz still has a job is a great mystery.

➤ The tone deafness in the clubhouse continued. Here’s what Bauers said after the game: “There’s a lot of talent in this clubhouse. It’s no secret things haven’t really been going our way. At some point, everything’s going to turn around. We’re going to get hot, we’re going to win some games, September’s going to come around and we’ll be right in it.” Dude, come on.

BOX SCORE

Aug. 8: Yankees 7, White Sox 1

➤ In a season that has been filled with disappointment, Clarke Schmidt has been one of the few positive developments. Early on he was contributing mightily to the disappointment when his ERA was 6.30 through his first nine starts. But in his last 14, his ERA is 3.12, the batting average against is .231, and the on-base against is a sterling .289.

➤ Schmidt pitched into the sixth inning and for the 20th time in 24 starts he allowed three earned runs or fewer. There’s not many guys in MLB who can say that. He gave up just one run on four hits (a Robert home run in the fourth) and he walked just one and struck out seven. I really doubted whether Schmidt would ever be able to pitch like this, and now we have to hope he can keep doing it for years to come because Lord knows they need someone stable besides Cole in the rotation.

➤ The offense managed 13 hits which is like euphoria for this team. They still were pretty lame with runners in scoring position, just 2-for-7. But the two were big - during a four-run fourth Isiah Kiner-Falefa had a two-run double and Harrison Bader had an RBI single, one of his three hits on the night. Later, with the issue resolved, Kyle Higashioka hit a two-run homer and Judge hit a solo shot, his first since July 29.

➤ Nice job by Michael King. Schmidt left with men on first and third and one out but King put out the fire by striking out Moncada and Vaughn, then followed that with two innings of two-hit shoutout ball. And then Jonathan Loaisiga mopped up in the ninth, a 1-2-3 in his first game since April 5. If Loaisiga and just returned Nestor Cortes can pitch to their usual form, that would certainly be a bonus if the Yankees have any hope of making the playoffs.

BOX SCORE

Aug. 9: White Sox 9, Yankees 2

➤ In theory, I guess it was worth trying given that Luis Severino’s ERA is 13.85 in the first inning. Boone tried an opener in the rubber game, hoping that having Severino avoid the top of the order in the first would help and Ian Hamilton pitched a scoreless first. In came Severino for the second for what the Yankees were hoping would be bulk innings, but within four batters it was 3-0 White Sox. In the third it became 4-0, and when he walked the leadoff man in the fourth, his night was done. It’s sad. It really is sad watching Severino pitch this way because you can tell he really cares and that it’s killing him. He’s always been a stand-up guy as far as I can tell from a distance, but this has to end. The Yankees can’t pitch him anymore unless it’s in a blowout, either up or down.

➤ Of course, it would have been nice if his teammates picked him up, but no, they were feeble against herky-jerky Mike Clevinger and did nothing on offense. Just another night filled with empty, awful at bats. They managed just one run on three hits against Clevinger, though having to face that guy had to be maddening with all his dance moves before he throws every pitch.

➤ All you had to do was watch the top of the seventh inning to understand what this entire season has been like. Clevinger was pulled and the Yankees jumped all over reliever Jimmy Lambert. Stanton hit his second pitch for a solo homer, then McKinney and IKF singled and Bader walked to load the bases with no outs. How bad is Lambert if the Yankees did that much on the 11 pitches he threw? Well, I don’t even have to tell you what happened after they loaded the bases, right? Aaron Bummer replaced Lambert and six pitches later the inning was over. Oswaldo Cabrera - who for some reason keeps getting called back up even though he’s not a major league player - struck out. And then Higgy hit into a tailor-made double play to kill the rally. Pfftttt. That is the Yankees season tied up in a quintessential snapshot.

➤ Cabrera was playing because LeMahieu was scratched because of a calf injury. Boone had planned to give Volpe the night off and play IKF at short. When LeMahieu couldn’t play, common sense would have dictated moving IKF to third and getting Volpe back in the lineup. You know, put the best possible lineup out there in a game the Yankees need to win. But not Boone. No, he just had to give Volpe that day off so we were treated to Cabrera coming up in a huge spot and doing that. Of course, Volpe later pinch hit in the game.

➤ Here’s a couple numbers that further explain how terrible this offense has been. BABIP stands for batting average for balls in play, so it excludes home runs and strikeouts and measures only balls put in play. The Yankees rank dead last in MLB with a .265 BABIP average. With runners in scoring position they rank dead last with a .234 average, and they are dead last in number of at bats when they’ve had RISP with just 806. Obviously, that’s because guys don’t get on base in order to get into scoring position. If I could find how many 1-2-3 innings there have been I’d share, but I’m sure the Yankees have close to the most in MLB. Against this horrible White Sox team, the Yankees did this across three games: 38 strikeouts, 3-for-26 with RISP, 29 runners left on base. It’s just next-level awful.

BOX SCORE

➤ Aug. 10, 1977: Approximately 20 minutes before Yankees reliever Dick Tidrow induced Oakland pinch-hitter Willie Crawford to ground out to finish off a 6-3 victory at Yankee Stadium, something much more important was occurring over in Yonkers. New York City police detective John Falotico pointed a gun at the head of David Berkowitz, who proceeded to smile broadly and say, “Well, you’ve got me.”

This was the night that New York City could finally rest easy as the Son of Sam serial killer was captured, but not before he had killed six and wounded seven over the previous 13 months.

Due partly to the fact that people were so afraid to go out at night, there was a sparse gathering of 16,440 on hand in the Bronx who would go home to learn the good news of Berkowitz’s capture. They watched Ron Guidry pitched four-hit ball through seven innings, striking out eight, but the more interesting development was that manager Billy Martin had Reggie Jackson batting cleanup.

Martin and Jackson had been at odds all year, and as a way to show who was the boss, Martin had purposely not batted Jackson in his preferred cleanup spot outside of a handful of times. This pissed Jackson off to no end, but what could he do? Finally, Martin gave in because the Yankees needed Jackson to be in that spot rather than fifth or six.

Jackson paid immediate dividends with an RBI single during a five-run first-inning against A’s starter Vida Blue. Trailing the Red Sox by five games, the Yankees went on a 40-13 tear with Jackson batting fourth most nights and they overtook Boston in the AL East. Of course, Jackson saved his best for the World Series when he swatted five home runs in the final three games against the Dodgers, all from the cleanup spot.

The Yankees have Thursday off as they make their way to Miami to play the 60-56 Marlins. For much of the year the Marlins were one of baseball’s pleasant surprises, a team many figured would be no better than fourth in the NL East but for a while was giving the Braves a run for their money.

Now, reality has set in and winning the division is out of the question and the Marlins are hanging on for dear life in the NL wild-card race as they hold a half-game lead over the Cubs for the third and final spot.

The Marlins rank 27th in home runs with just 109 which is why they rank just 17th in OPS at .718. But led by MLB batting leader Luis Arraez (.369), they are a maddening nickel and dime team that is third in batting average at .262, meaning a full 30 points better than the 29th-ranked Yankees. On the pitching side they’re 16th in ERA at 4.16 but tied for 10th in WHIP at 1.27

The pitching matchups look like this: Friday at 6:40 p.m. on YES it’s probably going to be Randy Vazquez (1.17 ERA in three starts) against Jesus Lazardo (3.52); Saturday at 4:10 on YES it’s Nestor Cortes (4.97) against Marlins ace and 2022 NL Cy Young winner Sandy Alcantara (4.28); and Sunday at 1:40 on YES it’s Gerrit Cole (2.75) against 20-year-old Eury Perez (2.79) who has had a great season. That’s three Marlins pitchers who could feast on this Yankees lineup.