Brad Ausmus is gone, and the Yankees are left staring at a coaching puzzle they probably should have solved already.
Ausmus accepted the Astros’ manager job on Wednesday after spending the past couple of weeks as a realistic candidate to leave New York for Houston in some role. He had interviewed for both the GM opening and the manager position before landing the latter, and now the Yankees suddenly need a new bench coach.
That’s the bad news. The worse news is that the Yankees have already watched two other coaches walk out the door for new jobs, and either one could have been a clean answer to this problem.
Triple-A manager Shelley Duncan left for the Red Sox’s major league staff, while catching coach and field coordinator Tanner Swanson moved on to become the Mariners’ bench coach. The Yankees reportedly offered Swanson more money to stay in his current role, but they didn’t see him as a bench coach candidate.
That sequence leaves New York in a rough spot. Duncan or Swanson would have fit naturally into the opening next to Aaron Boone, but the Yankees let the situation drift until the options were gone. With the hitting coach situation also unresolved, the staff now has another hole to fill.
Luis Rojas is one internal name that could step into Ausmus’ spot. He managed the Mets from 2020-2021 and has been on the Yankees’ staff since 2022, so he brings two seasons of dugout experience in a big market. And for Yankees fans, there’s also the simple fact that they probably wouldn’t mind seeing him move off third base duties.
Still, the larger issue is that the Yankees were supposed to be making changes this offseason. Owner Hal Steinbrenner hinted that changes were coming to the coaching staff, but nothing has materialized, and instead the team has taken losses without any meaningful upgrades.
The most obvious area for change is the hitting staff, though it remains unclear whether James Rowson, Casey Dykes and Jake Hirst will be back. What is clear is that the Yankees need fresh voices on the staff, and they’re not in an ideal position to replace Ausmus because they waited so long to act.
Ausmus never looked like a major difference-maker or a future Boone replacement, but losing him still adds another item to the list. And with an extended lockout looming in a few weeks, it’s not the kind of problem the Yankees wanted to be carrying around.
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