Aaron Boone Returns as Yankees Manager

 Well this was news that was not met very well by Yankees fans. 

Aaron Boone will be back in the Yankees dugout in 2022, and beyond for that matter. The Yankees and Boone inked a three-year extension that will keep him pinstripes through 2024, with a club option for 2025. 

In four years, Boone is 328-218 as Yankees skipper, has been to the playoffs all four years. Yet, the team has never been to the World Series under his watch. 

This past season, the Yanks struggled to get over .500 for large chunks of the year, and didn't qualify for the postseason until the final day of the  season.  As we all know the season ended a day later in the AL Wild Card game in Boston, a 6-2 loss. 

Yankees fans have been calling for Boone's head for years. They don't like his managerial style, the decisions he makes regarding pitchers or off days for players. But what fans keep glazing over is the obvious, Boone is the right manager for this front office. 

Baseball teams are run differently now. Managers are now extensions of the front office, specifically the general manager and analytics department. 

In short, Brian Cashman loves the guy, because he is not confrontational the way Joe Girardi had been, or would be to front office suggestions. 

"Ultimately, it falls on me," Cashman said of the Yankees' failure to reach a World Series since 2009. "Obviously if [controlling owner] Hal Steinbrenner or anybody wants to decide to make some changes down the line, that's above me.''

Cashman is correct, it's now on him. He must improve this roster. He needs to go out and get some starting pitching to fit behind Gerrit Cole, who ran out of gas and was a totally different pitcher after the Spider Tech scandal. 

Cashman must also figure out the shortstop conundrum. Cashman admitted Tuesday that he thinks Gleyber Torres is better off at second base, meaning the Yankees are looking for a short stop. Carlos Correa, Trevor Story and Javier Baez are just some of the shortstops available in free agency. 

If the Yankees move Torres to second, full time, what does that mean for DJ LeMahieu, who signed a six-year $90 million deal with the Yankees last offseason. Is he going to play first? Third? Trade? 

What about free agent-to-be Anthony Rizzo? 

You could blame Boone for a lot of things, but the facts remain, it is up to Brian Cashman to build a better baseball team than they have right now.