New York Yankees skipper Aaron Boone snubbed for MOY award

New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone was the runner up for AL Manager of the Year, which adds him to a long list of team snubs.

New York Yankees skipper, Aaron Boone, was the runner up in the 2019 AL Manager of the Year voting, losing to the Minnesota Twins first-year manager, Rocco Baldelli. Boone and Baldelli each received thirteen first-place votes, but the difference-maker was Baldelli’s thirteen second-place votes to Boone’s nine.

Call me biased, call me salty, call me whatever you want, but I’m sorry, this award should’ve been Boone’s. Don’t get me wrong, like Boone, Baldelli was deserving of the award. The Twins had a great season finishing 101-61 and made the playoffs after coming off a disappointing 2018 season, where they went 78-84.

I find it a little hard to believe that a manager who won 103 games while having 30 different players land on the IL didn’t win the award. The Yankees won three more games in 2019 than 2018 (100-62) despite having 30 players miss a total of 2,320 days, the 2017 NL MVP playing a total of 18 games, and Luis Severino mostly missing the entire regular season.

Boone deserves all the credit for the Yankees 2019 success by the way he instilled the “next man up” mentality and how he didn’t let this team pack it in and accept the fact that 2019 might not have been their year due to injuries.

Boone, getting snubbed for Manager of the Year, brings up a much bigger conversation. The conversation that baseball voters don’t like giving Yankees these types of awards. Before we take a look into the past, allow me to bring up the fact that DJ LeMahieu was snubbed as an AL MVP finalist.

Angels’ Mike Trout, Astros’ Alex Bregman, and Athletics’ Marcus Semien were named the 2019 AL MVP finalists. Trout and Bregman deserved to be on the list, but Semien?

Semien had a fantastic 2019 season, but LeMahieu’s was better. Semien posted a .285/.369/.522 slash line in 2019 and finished with 33 home runs, 92 RBI’s, .892 OPS and struck out 102 times.

LeMahieu posted a .327/.375/.518 slash line and finished with 26 home runs, 102 RBI’s, .893 OPS and struck out only 90 times. I haven’t even mentioned LeMahieu’s importance to this Yankees team.

There are plenty of other times the Yankees were snubbed when it came to awards:

Yankees third basemen Miguel Andujar being the runner up to Angels DH/P Shohei Ohtani for the 2018 Rookie of the Year award.

Andujar had a .297/.328/.527 slash line, hit 27 home runs, 92 RBI’s, and struck out 97 times while playing in 149 games. Ohtani only played in 104 games and finished with a .285/.361/.564 slash line with 22 home runs, 61 RBI’s, and struck out 102 times.

He pitched in 51.2 innings, had a 3.31 ERA, gave up 22 walks, and struck out 63 batters. I believe the only reason Ohtani won the award was due to him being a “two-way player.”

How about when Aaron Judge lost to Jose Altuve for the 2017 AL MVP?

Judge posted a .284/.422/.627 slash line, 1.049 OPS, hit 52 home runs, 114 RBI’s, drew 127 walks, and had an 8.1 WAR. Altuve won the MVP with a .346/.410/.547 slash line, .957 OPS, 24 home runs, 81 RBI’s, and an 8.1 WAR.

Yes, Judge won the 2017 AL Rookie of the Year, but he was by far the best AL rookie that season.

My last example was from 2006 when Derek Jeter lost the AL MVP to Justin Morneau.

Jeter: .343/.417/.483 slash line, 14 home runs, 97 RBI’s, 5.6 WAR, and was an All-Star.

Morneau: .321/.375/.559 slash line, 34 home runs, 130 RBI’s, 4.3 WAR, and was NOT an All-Star.

Boone not winning the 2019 AL Manager of the Year award gets added to a long list of Yankees who have been snubbed in this voting process. Call me crazy, call me biased, call me salty, there is some sort of Yankees hate conspiracy going on when it comes to the Major League Baseball voters.