Cashman: Boone has done 'amazing job' navigating New York market
New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman believes manager Aaron Boone has dealt with the pressure of an intense media market well during the team's inconsistent season.
"He has stayed levelheaded and even-keeled," Cashman said Friday, according to Chris Kirschner and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. "He knows how tough this sport is. He's invested in these guys heavily, as we all are.
"Trying to explain away a difficult play or a bad performance for some time while the storm is upon us is not an easy task to navigate or deal with and remain cool, calm, and collected. He's obviously done an amazing job of working through that."
Cashman also supported Boone's approach to addressing players' mental mistakes and struggles, despite the media, fans, and even Yankees legends like Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez questioning whether the team is being held sufficiently accountable.
"I'm not an advocate of becoming Randy 'Macho Man' Savage or John Cena from WWE and providing a power drive to finish off the victim - the victim being someone struggling at the plate, struggling defensively, struggling on the mound," the 58-year-old executive added. "And now you're hearing it externally, and their family and friends are all hearing it. Then internally, now, they're getting piled on also. In many cases, you've got to understand what the atmosphere is like."
The Yankees sit 6.5 games behind the Toronto Blue Jays for the division lead and 1.5 games up on the Cleveland Guardians for the AL's final wild-card spot.
"We're the defending American League champs trying to re-defend that," Cashman said. "Obviously, right now, we're not in control of the division. Our first goal is to try to win the American League East and automatically punch the ticket that way. If not, we'll be fighting to punch a ticket a different way.
"We have a lot of time on the clock, but not enough time at the same time. I don't want to misrepresent (that) there's not urgency, because there is."
New York has a 23-32 record since June 13 after leading the AL East by seven games in late May following a 35-20 start.