Should Cashman and Boone Make it Through the Season With the Yankees?

After starting the season a red-hot 50-22, the New York Yankees have since slumped, going 10-21. The Bronx Bombers' series win in Baltimore right before the All-Star Break was their only series win since June 10-13 in Kansas City.

While a lot of people are starting to call for the dismissals of Aaron Boone and Brian Cashman (especially after the Yankees just got swept in the most recent Subway Series with the Mets), there are a lot of reasons why the Yankees have cooled down. Injuries have played a big role, especially those to Giancarlo Stanton and Anthony Rizzo. These have been two brutal blows to an offense that previously had been rolling. Stanton and Rizzo helped keep the lineup balanced, forcing opposing pitchers to pick their poison of who they would rather face throughout the lineup. This has left the offense with, as Luis Severino called it, a lineup of only two hitters in Aaron Judge and Juan Soto.

Alex Verdugo, who started the season hitting the cover off the ball, has since been the worst hitter in the MLB since June 15th when he had his big three-hit night in his first return to Fenway Park. On top of that, Verdugo’s -0.7 fWAR and .154 batting average ranks 168th out of 169 players. He also has a .220 OBP, .222 Slugging Percentage and 29 wRC+, which are at the bottom of the majors.

Gleyber Torres has been another disappointment who, as of press time, owns a .230 batting average and a .658 OPS in 97 games. He also leads all second baseman with 12 errors and has a 0.6 WAR, which ranks 17th out of 20 qualified second baseman. Torres has certainly not done himself any favors in a contract year and has most likely played his way out of the Bronx come the offseason.

DJ LeMahieu, after fracturing his foot in spring training, has only recorded four extra base hits since returning and owns a .183 batting average. He finally hit his first home run of the season this past Monday versus the Tampa Bay Rays. With all of this in mind, let’s look at how this could impact the job security of both Aaron Boone and Brian Cashman.

Aaron Boone

It remains very unlikely that New York will make a change at the managerial spot during the season. The last time the Yankees made a change mid-season was in 1990 when they let go of Bucky Dent and replaced him with Stump Merrill for the rest of the year. Boone is in a tough spot where he has little wiggle room with the roster he has been given due to the injuries they have suffered.

For example, Jahmai Jones, who has rarely played as of late, was penciled in to bat leadoff Tuesday night versus the New York Mets. Jones is batting just.226 in his last 15 games. There is also JD Davis, who hasn’t played since July 4th and was batting cleanup on Tuesday. Davis was DFAd by the Oakland Athletics and has since hit .063 in the six games he’s played in for the Yankees. There doesn’t seem to be a real justification to remove Boone at this point, as what is he supposed to do when the roster at this moment is the equivalent of a minor league lineup outside of Judge and Soto?  When he had the lineup at, or near, full strength his team was dominating the American League.

Even if the Yankees were to make a change with Boone, would it really matter if the replacement would also rely on analytics to make decisions and wouldn’t ever call out the players for poor performance? As much as some don’t like the way the game is turning to be dependent on analytics, the reality of the situation is that this is now the way the game is and it isn’t going back. The days of Billy Martin, Joe Torre, Earl Weaver, Tommy Lasorda and so on, are over. The only way I could see Boone possibly losing his job is if either the Yankees completely miss the playoffs or lose in the first wild card round.

Brian Cashman

While Cashman has his share of bad trades and signings, he also has a history of smart pickups that he pulled off without giving up the entire farm system.  For example, he traded for Juan Soto and Alex Verdugo to strengthen the outfield. He also signed Marcus Stroman to improve the starting rotation which has turned out to be a good signing. The idea was with these signings and Jasson Dominguez as backup would improve the roster and outfield. These signings were working as the Yankees had the best record in baseball before the injuries took over.

It remains very hard for me to see Hal Steinbrenner ever parting with Cashman given how many times people thought he would be the fall guy. It is worth noting that Cashman is widely respected around Major League Baseball and would find a new job right away. Billy Beane has been on record calling him the Tom Brady of GMs and believes without a doubt that he will be in the Hall of Fame. I think what it comes down to is the Yankees’ motto of “championship or bust” doesn’t apply anymore because with the expanded playoffs, the post-season has become somewhat of a crapshoot. In addition, every team in the majors now has virtually the same analytics and information as every other team. Plus, if they really believed in their motto they would have made a drastic change after last season when they missed the playoffs completely. And, by the way, the Yankees have not had a losing season since 1992, which is unheard of in professional sports.

The Yankees have a lot of work to do as the trade deadline approaches and hopefully, they will make a move to bring a spark to the team for the playoff push. They will also need guys to step up and hopefully Dominguez, Stanton and Rizzo will return and do well, which would act as great deadline acquisitions that did not require any extra trade bait or salary.

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