As the Yankees’ season came to a bitter end earlier in October, franchise icon Derek Jeter suggested that manager Aaron Boone wasn’t the one making the call on every in-game move.
Not only did Brian Cashman on Thursday dispel any notions that Boone doesn’t have full control over game decisions, but that Jeter made a “sad, sad throwaway comment.”
During FS1’s postgame show after the Yankees’ season came to an end in the ALDS against the Blue Jays, both Jeter and former Bombers third baseman Alex Rodriguez had their thoughts about the team, with the latter calling out the front office for what he thought was “one of the worst constructions of a roster I’ve ever seen.”
Jeter admitted that he didn’t have any specific information about the inner workings of the current state of the Yankees’ organization, but speculated that Boone wasn’t making every decision himself.
“Aaron did a good job,” Jeter said. “He’s working with what he has to work with, and he sticks up for his players. I know he takes a lot of heat. … Look, I’m not saying it from any inside knowledge, but I’m pretty sure Aaron’s not the one that’s calling every move they make throughout the game.”
Cashman, after his post-mortem press conference on Thursday when he publicly backed Boone, called into WFAN’s “Evan and Tiki” to shoot down the idea that the front office is secretly pulling the strings.
The longtime general manager said the “boogeyman” of someone outside the manager making the moves — at least in The Bronx — is unfounded, even if it’s a popular narrative from critics, particularly those who bemoan analytics.
“It’s not true, clearly,” Cashman said. “And they don’t know, clearly they don’t know. I know that DJ said that, I don’t what he meant by it, he did say he doesn’t have inside knowledge when he said it. But he did say it, for whatever reason. And I think that’s the bugaboo that people get to throw out there when they got nothing else to throw.”
Cashman made clear that he doesn’t make the lineup or tell Boone who to pitch.
He did say there are conversations about “process and setups” to help make informed decisions but no specific directives in-game.
“It’s just a sad, sad throwaway comment for people to make that don’t really know,” Cashman said.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
