Saturday’s win was a special one for New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone.
After a lopsided 10-0 victory over the Oakland Athletics, the 51-year-old earned his 600th win as New York’s skipper, putting him among the franchise’s most iconic and successful managers.
Boone, who is nearing the completion of his seventh season, became just the seventh manager in team history to win at least 600 games. The other six consist of Joe McCarthy (1,460 wins), Joe Torre (1,173), Casey Stengel (1,149), Miller Huggins (1,067), Ralph Houk (944), and predecessor Joe Girardi (910); the first four of these skippers have been inducted into both Monument Park and the National Baseball Hall of Fame, while Torre and Stengel both have their uniform numbers retired.
Boone is currently the only manager of this group who has yet to win a World Series championship, but with the Yankees closing in on the top seed in a wide-open American League, there is a legitimate possibility for the former third baseman to join these legendary skippers.
“I actually didn’t know, going into today,” Boone said when reporter Meredith Marakovits brought up the milestone in his postgame presser. “Someone said it, and I didn’t even realize after [the game]. Lou Cucuzza was right there to give me the ball… It’s the result of a lot of good teams, a lot of really good players, and the opportunity to do it for an extended period of time. So it’s the result of a lot of us allowing us to get to a number like that.”
Outside of 2023, Boone’s teams have been consistent playoff contenders; the Yankees have finished every season under his watch with a winning record, and have made the playoffs in each year except the aforementioned 2023 season. This included back-to-back seasons with 100 or more wins in 2018 and 2019, as well as ALCS appearances in 2019 and 2022.
Boone is currently in the final year of a three-year contract that he signed in 2021, but the Yankees have a club option they can exercise next season to keep him around. If the Bronx Bombers can make a deep playoff run next month, the seventh-year skipper may have the opportunity to reach more milestones in the future.
