Yankees Stand By Boone After Another October Collapse

The teams still playing this October share a profile. Tampa Bay struck out in 18.8 percent of its plate appearances this season, the lowest rate in the majors, and laid down 45 sacrifice bunts, the most of any club. Cleveland had the fifth-lowest strikeout rate. Milwaukee stole 162 bases, fifth-most in baseball, and committed 72 errors, seventh-fewest. None of the three finished higher than 22nd in home runs.

The Yankees were built the other way. They hit 223 home runs, second in the majors, and struck out in 24.7 percent of their plate appearances, fourth-worst. They committed 97 errors, sixth-most. They bunted for a sacrifice 10 times, second-fewest.

That approach won 93 games and a wild-card series. Against Tampa Bay in the Division Series, it produced five runs in three games.

The Rays swept the series, 1-0, 5-2 and 4-3. The Yankees never led in any of the 27 innings. They batted .130, with 12 hits in 92 at-bats, and struck out 31 times. In Game 1 they had one hit, a double by Austin Wells in the eighth inning, and Wells was thrown out trying to stretch it into a triple. They struck out 12 times and lost by a run.

Game 2 was worse. In the bottom of the first inning, third baseman Ryan McMahon booted a grounder, second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. threw one away, and Wells was charged with catcher's interference after a Tampa Bay challenge. That made three errors in one inning, and a fourth followed in the fifth when shortstop George Lombard Jr. threw wide during the Rays' four-run inning. Tampa Bay won 5-2. In Game 3 in the Bronx, Trent Grisham went 0 for 5 with three strikeouts, the last one ending the season. The Yankees left 15 men on base.

The Rays made one error in the series and struck out 18 times.

On a postgame broadcast after Game 3, Derek Jeter, the shortstop on the late-1990s championship teams, said those clubs "focused on all the little things" and could win a game 2-1 as well as with the long ball. In this series, he said, the Yankees "beat themselves."

Alex Rodriguez, who joined the Yankees in 2004 and won a title with them in 2009, spoke on the same broadcast. "Something has to change. I'm not talking about personnel. I'm talking about a philosophy. There has to be a philosophy change," he said. He called the first inning of Game 2 one of the strangest he had ever seen.

Anthony Rizzo, who played first base for the Yankees from 2021 to 2024, said on his podcast that the organization keeps "doing the same thing every year and we don't win," and called it "the definition of insanity if you think it's going to change." CC Sabathia, the left-hander who pitched for the 2009 champions, said on a podcast that nobody in the current clubhouse is keeping the standard he learned from older Yankees.

None of them called for Aaron Boone's job, and Rodriguez said he was not saying anyone should lose theirs. Their complaints were about how the team is built and how it plays.

The fans were less restrained. Two separate accounts from Yankee Stadium described Boone being booed during pregame introductions before Game 3.

The front office has not moved. Boone is under contract through 2027, the last year of the two-year extension the Yankees announced in February 2025, and the club has announced no change. On Oct. 7, Cashman put his support on the record, calling Boone a really good manager and saying he was part of the reason the team had gotten where it was.

Boone's regular-season record is real: 790-565 over nine seasons, eight playoff trips and the 2024 pennant. So is the other number. The Yankees have not won a World Series since 2009, a 17-season drought.

My view is that standing pat with the manager, after a series lost on errors, outs on the bases and strikeouts, against a team that plays the opposite way, tells the fans their complaint has been heard and set aside. It amounts to a slap in the face from the front office to the people who buy the tickets. The teams still playing have shown another way to build a roster. The Yankees, so far, have shown no interest in trying it.