Aaron Boone has injury-plagued Yankees back in the playoffs with bigger goals in mind
MINNEAPOLIS — When the Yankees wrapped up their spot in the postseason Monday night, Aaron Boone joined some select company.He became the second manager in MLB history to reach the postseason in at least eight of his first nine seasons, joining Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who has now done it in each of his first 11 seasons.Boone is also the third manager to make the playoffs in eight of his first nine seasons with the Yankees, joining Joe Torre and Casey Stengel.
Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Greg Joyce about the inside buzz on the Yankees.Of course, Roberts, Torre and Stengel have combined to win 14 World Series titles while Boone is still in search of his first.
And ultimately, in New York, that is how he will be judged, as opposed to just getting his team to the postseason regularly.But in a season in which the Yankees have had most of their biggest stars spend sizable chunks of time on the injured list, Boone has helped lead them through the adversity to still have as good a chance as any team in the American League to make a run to the World Series.“He’s our guy,” Aaron Judge said in the champagne-soaked visitors clubhouse at Target Field late Monday night.“He’s the one we go to battle for every single night and just lucky and blessed to have him here, to be able to fight for a guy like that.
He loves every single guy in this room and we’re going to fight till the end for him.”The Yankees still have bigger things left to accomplish this year, starting with trying to chase down the Rays for the division, but then more importantly, attempting to go the distance in October for the first time since 2009.But by the time they clinched their playoff spot, the Yankees had survived 84 games without Judge; 124 games and counting without Giancarlo Stanton; 25 games without Cody Bellinger; 27 games and counting without Trent Grisham (across two IL stints); 22 games without Ryan McMahon (acr...