New York Yankees veteran Clint Frazier claims the main reason Aaron Boone became the club’s skipper in 2018 was that the favorite to get the job made a huge blunder during the interview process.
Boone has been a major topic of discussion in the Bronx over the last couple of months. Despite guiding the team to a World Series appearance a year ago, his job is in serious jeopardy because of the club’s 14-20 record since July 1. They are 3-7 in their last 10 and seem to be slowly slipping out of playoff contention.
Yanks fans have had an up-and-down relationship with the one-time player throughout his eight-year run as manager. However, according to Yankees veteran Clint Frazier, his teammates were sure the organization would instead hire bench coach Rob Thomson to be the manager when the job became available in 2018. However, a major miscue during his interview allegedly opened the door for Boone to swoop in and win the job.
Aaron Boone record: 665-485
”I heard something through the grapevine that when [Joe] Girardi was fired, and they’re going through situations to find the next manager,” he began by saying on a new post on his YouTube channel [h/t Pinstripe Alley]. “Every player on the team wanted Rob Thomson to be the manager. I still to this day know he was the guy. He would’ve been such a good option. I’m not taking anything away from Boonie, but Rob Thomson was the guy who probably should’ve gotten the first look.
“But from what I was told when he [interviewed], he told the team that he wouldn’t have done anything different from what Joe Girardi did [in the 2017 season]. So they’re kind of like… ‘F***, how are we gonna get past what we just got through if his successor is saying that he wouldn’t do anything differently?’ … That’s just the reality of not just being a New York Yankees manager, if something’s not working, you can’t have the same person come in and do the same thing that the person you just fired did.”
Giradi was allowed to walk after the Yankees blew a 3-2 ALCS lead to the Houston Astros in the 2017 playoffs. Thomson was the team’s top assistant at the time and played a key role in a 91-win campaign that year. He would go on to take a similar role in Philadelphia in 2018. Before becoming the Phillies manager in 2022, and led them to the World Series that year.
Many Yankees fans assumed Boone was a better fit for general manager Brian Cashman and the approach he wanted to take with the team. That may be true, but this puts a very different spin on why he was hired eight years ago.
