TAMPA, Fla. — New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said on Friday that he believes there would be a “feeding frenzy” if Aaron Boone were to become a managerial free agent. The Yankees have no intention of seeing the frenzy unfold.
Cashman said extension talks for Boone are underway, and it’s a possibility that the Yankees’ manager’s future could be settled before Opening Day next month. The Yankees picked up Boone’s club option for 2025 earlier this winter, but as it stands now, he’s a lame-duck manager. The club has said all along that its main focus this winter was roster construction and that they’d handle other priorities secondarily. With the roster settled — unless they can find a new infielder, but the Yankees appear content with DJ LeMahieu at third base — finalizing Boone’s extension is next on the agenda.
“I hope we get it done,” Boone said Saturday. “No place I’d rather be, obviously, doing it with this team and this organization and in front of this fanbase. Hopefully, we do get to the finish line with that. I’m certainly optimistic and hopeful.”
“No place I’d rather be.”
Aaron Boone says he hopes to have a contract extension done by the end of spring training: pic.twitter.com/TUUUCKZ44J
— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) February 15, 2025
Since 1900, there are only eight managers who’ve amassed at least 600 wins and have a .580 winning percentage or better: Joe McCarthy, Billy Southworth, Frank Chance, John McGraw, Al Lopez and Earl Weaver (who are all in the Hall of Fame), Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and Boone. Of the eight managers, only Lopez and Boone have not won a World Series. Boone is also the only manager in Yankees history to last at least five seasons on the job without a championship, and 2025 will be Year 8 for him.
Boone has lasted this long manning the Yankees because the clubhouse respects him, and owner Hal Steinbrenner has made it clear that he believes there’s no better option to lead his club. Cashman feels similarly to Steinbrenner.
“The one thing I’m so impressed with is his temperament,” Cashman said. “There’s a lot of slings and arrows coming our way despite having — even last year — a nice run, but it wasn’t ultimately what we wanted in the end. At the end of the day, he’s handled the ups and downs, the successes, the failures all the same way. I think that is a strength. That is a benefit. I know that if he wasn’t the Yankees’ manager, it would be a feeding frenzy for him to be a manager that’s coveted elsewhere. That’s how we see it. We’re hopeful that we can find common ground to continue leading our players from that dugout.”
Cashman himself is under contract through the 2026 season. While he has not publicly stated his intentions regarding his future as general manager, it is widely expected that the Yankees will extend him if he chooses to continue in the role. However, if Cashman decides to step aside after his contract expires, the Yankees could find themselves in a situation where their manager is under contract while their general manager position could be unsettled.
No matter what the Yankees decide to do, it feels imminent that the club and Boone will agree to an extension at any moment.
“We’re hopeful that at some point sooner than later that we’ll be able to officially cement something,” Cashman said. “Our intent is to make sure Aaron Boone is going to continue past the 2025 season.”
(Photo: Nathan Ray Seebeck / Imagn Images)
