This offseason has not been friendly for the New York Yankees, as Aaron Boone doesn’t walk away with a well-deserved award for AL Manager for the Year.
Apparently, there is some more illegal activity going on in Major League Baseball besides just the Houston Astros getting popped for their sign-stealing schemes.
Aaron Boone does not walk away a victor in the regular season and, once again, comes in second place in the American League after being defeated by Rocco Baldelli for AL Manager of the Year.
While Baldelli is also deserving of the award, it’s hard to sit there and believe that Aaron Boone did not emerge on top of this race. Baldelli finally got his victory over Boone, even though Boone was an incredible candidate.
Baldelli transformed a struggling Minnesota Twins team into a legitimate contender over the course of one season and his managerial impact should not be looked over. Aaron Boone had one of the best managerial seasons of all time.
While the Yankees were already an incredibly talented team entering the season, but nobody could anticipate the injuries and the extent to which they changed the entire team. What Boone was able to do with a lineup of underdogs was absolutely phenomenal.
I mean, he had Brett Gardner batting third multiple times this season. If you know, you know.
Boone took his savages to a 103-win season and within two games of the World Series. While they had high expectations in the beginning, that all changed the moment names like Giancarlo Stanton, Luis Severino, Dellin Betances and Miguel Andujar went down with significant injuries.
While Baldelli is deserving, there is an argument there that Aaron Boone was the clear favorite in this race.
Why he didn’t win, we’ll never truly know. But this was a prime opportunity to solidify what we already knew: Aaron Boone is the guy in the Bronx.