TAMPA, Fla. – Aaron Boone, the occasionally maligned New York Yankees manager who guided his club to the 2024 World Series, will stick around beyond this upcoming season.
The Yankees on Thursday extended Boone’s contract two seasons, through 2027, ensuring that the manager who has connected relatively well with a new generation of players will continue through a 10th season in New York.
Boone, 51, has a 604-429 record in seven seasons as Yankees manager since taking over for Joe Girardi before the 2018 season. During Boone’s tenure, the Yankees have won 100 games twice made the playoffs in all but one season – 2023, marred by an extended absence by two-time MVP Aaron Judge.
In 2024, they finally broke through, winning 94 games and the AL pennant by defeating the Cleveland Guardians in five games. A superior and more fundamentally-sound Los Angeles Dodgers team seized a 3-0 World Series lead and eventually captured the championship in five games.
Yet Boone and the Yankees have been working on an extension for several weeks, ironing out the final details during the opening days of camp.
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‘No other place I want to be, no other people I want to be doing this with,’ says Boone Thursday after the Yankees’ workout. ‘This is the end result I certainly wanted.’
The Houston Astros are the only AL team to win more games than the Yankees since Boone’s tenure began. He is the 33rd manager in Yankees history and, should he fulfill both years of his extension, join Girardi in sixth place among managerial tenures with the club.
Boone was viewed as a superior conduit to younger players such as Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez when he was hired. Judge has since won a pair of AL MVP awards and has quietly backed Boone in the years since.
‘Letting us all feel comfortable being ourselves,’ says Judge of Boone’s impact. ‘Different egos, different guys who have won Cy Youngs and MVPs. He’s done such a good job with it. He cares about us. He cares about all of us in this room.
‘When you do that, it can take you a long way.’
Boone remains in pursuit of the Yankees’ first championship since 2009 and internal and external expectations can often ramp up the burden on a manager in the Bronx. Boone, though, has largely maintained an even keel through his time in the manager’s seat.
‘I wouldn’t want it,’ he said of the New York cauldron, ‘any other way.’