The Yankees’ slide has hit seven straight, their longest skid since 2023, when they missed the postseason. And on a night when they had a real opening to stop the bleeding, Aaron Boone made the choice that put the spotlight squarely on him.
With New York in the 10th inning and a runner already on third after José Caballero’s bunt pushed Spencer Jones, the ghost runner, over, Boone passed on Paul Goldschmidt and stayed with Oswaldo Cabrera. Cabrera then chased a pitch well off the plate, one Dillon Dingler had to block, and the chance to end the game vanished. Camilo Doval carried things into the 11th, and, as the source put it, “did Camilo Doval things.”
Boone’s explanation did little to clear things up. Asked why he didn’t turn to Goldschmidt, he offered this: “I have confidence that Cabrera can touch the ball, too,” Boone said, according to The Athletic’s Chris Kirschner.
That answer only fed the criticism. The Yankees can’t control the injuries that have hit them, including absences for Aaron Judge and Trent Grisham. But Boone does control his in-game choices, and this one looked costly with Ben Rice and Cody Bellinger both struggling and the lineup already short on answers.
Cabrera’s track record doesn’t help the case. In his career, he has hit .232/.292/.343 with an 80 wRC+. The source also noted that, outside of his first stint in the majors, he has “hardly been a major league caliber player,” and that his defense has not been strong enough to justify the playing time he’s received.
There is at least one argument for why Boone may have stuck with him: contact. Cabrera has a career 78.8% contact rate.
For comparison, Judge has a career 58.8% contact rate, and during his MVP run between 2022 and 2025, it was 69.7%. But Boone didn’t point to any of that.
The explanation sounded more like a gut call than a process-driven one, and the result matched it.
The larger concern around Boone isn’t that the Yankees are going to change managers in the middle of the season. That isn’t happening.
The real issue is whether this is the kind of thinking he’ll bring into October. The source drew a line back to the World Series, when Boone went with Nestor Cortes Jr. against Freddie Freeman.
For now, Boone stays. But with the Yankees still searching for a way out of this mess, the pressure isn’t going away - and neither is the question of what happens when his contract runs out. Ten years without a championship lands on him too, even with Brian Cashman-built rosters that haven’t always been perfect.
In Other News...
Aaron Boone Made One Choice Yankees Fans Wont Stop Arguing About
The Yankees have spent most of this week trying to patch together an offense that has vanished at the worst possible time, and the latest loss only added to the frustration. After the 11-inning defeat to the Tigers, the clubs losing streak reached seven games, with the lineup still operating under the strain of an overnight illness that left Aaron Boone with fewer options than usual and a group that has struggled to put together anything resembling a sustained rally.
The bigger concern is how thin the margin for error has become. New York has managed only 23 hits over its last six games, the fewest in any six-game span in franchise history, and every decision now gets magnified when the bats are this quiet. Boones in-game maneuvering is already under the microscope, and after the Yankees had a chance to grab the game in the 10th before things unraveled in the 11th, it is clear the debate around his choices is not going away anytime soon. [Read more 🡒]
Yankees Just Made A Bullpen Move Fans Will Absolutely Hate
The Yankees latest stumble only added to the frustration around a bullpen that has been asked to carry a heavy load during this losing stretch. After an 11-inning loss to the Tigers completed a three-game sweep and extended the slide to seven straight, the club again found itself trying to patch together relief innings while the margin for error kept shrinking.
Then came the move fans were expecting to hate: rookie right-hander Yovanny Cruz was optioned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, a decision that landed badly because of how effective he has looked in recent relief work. In a bullpen already feeling the strain, the timing made the reaction even sharper, and the backlash around the decision quickly became part of the story. [Read more 🡒]