MLB Rumors: Aaron Boone to Return as Yankees Manager in 2025 After World Series Loss

The New York Yankees are expected to pick up their option on manager Aaron Boone’s contract and bring him back next season.

SNY’s Andy Martino provided the scoop after the Yankees fell 7-6 in Game 5 of the World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers, cementing the National League champions’ five-game Fall Classic victory.

“As such, Boone is expected back as manager in 2025, despite how the World Series went, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the team’s thinking,” Martino wrote. “That would have been the case even if the Yankees had been swept.

“The Yankees hold an option on Boone for next season. To avoid a lame duck year, it would be logical to follow the pennant-winning season with a contract extension.”

Boone has been the Yankees’ manager since 2018. He’s led the Yankees to six playoff appearances, three AL East titles and one AL pennant.

The Yankees have mostly fared well in the regular season under Boone, with the team posting winning seasons each year. New York notably hasn’t had a losing campaign since 1992.

But playoff success has largely eluded the Yankees until this year. Overall, New York is just 22-23 in the postseason with Boone as the manager.

Expectations were high this year with the Yankees holding the No. 1 seed in the American League playoffs. Per Martino, “word around the Yankees was that the team had to win at least one round, and probably two, in order for manager Aaron Boone to keep his job.”

New York did that, beating the Kansas City Royals and Cleveland Guardians to get to the World Series. The Yankees also got to the Fall Classic for the first time since 2009 with relative ease, winning seven of nine games.

The World Series was a bitter disappointment, though. A mix of sloppy defense, faltering relief pitching, baserunning errors and dormant hitting ultimately led to the Yankees losing in five.

In addition, Boone’s decision to bring in Nestor Cortes, who hadn’t pitched since Sept. 18 due to an elbow flexor strain, in Game 1 proved costly. Cortes ultimately gave up a game-ending grand slam to eventual World Series MVP Freddie Freeman, turning a potential 3-2 win into a 6-3 loss in 10 innings.

If you’re wondering whether Yankees brass thought that decision was grounds for an axing, they reportedly didn’t, per Martino.

“Sometimes external noise infiltrates the Yankee offices and influences decisions, and the volume on this one was loud.

“But we checked: Yankees brass did not view Boone’s call for Cortes as a blunder, but as a close decision that could have gone either way. If some folks in the building would have left Luke Weaver in the game (as Boone suggested he might have), or called on lefty specialist Tim Hill, Boone’s bosses understood the solid rationale behind the Cortes move.

“In other words, it was a million miles from a fireable offense, in the eyes of the folks making that decision.”

Boone has certainly been a lightning rod for criticism at times, and the team’s lack of October success follows him. But there ultimately was little-to-no doubt that he’d be brought back when the team made the World Series, something the club hadn’t accomplished yet under his tenure. Parting ways with him now would send an odd message when the Yankees could have let him go after less successful years, namely the 82-80 season in 2023.

So the Yanks will go into 2025 with Boone leading the way, perhaps with an extension in tow. The biggest question is whether the team can re-sign superstar Juan Soto, an impending free agent.

But other thoughts loom, namely how New York can clean up the sloppy defense and poor baserunning that haunted it all season, with the former ultimately costing the Yanks Game 5 and a shot at a miracle 3-0 comeback in the World Series. It’ll apparently be on Boone to help figure that out.