LOCKOUT LEAVES
Yanks’ Boone: It ‘sucks’ that he can’t check in on his guys
Aaron Boone admitted it “sucks” that the MLB lockout is keeping him from being able to reach out to players he’s worked closely with for the last four years during the holidays. Yankees fans have to hope that the labor unrest will not affect the Bombers’ chance to get back into the mix for a World Series title in 2022. For Boone, that means just hoping the players are keeping up with plans they were sent home with after the season and working with his revamped coaching staff, which will have to make quick connections when this work stoppage is eventually over.
“We tried to put our guys in the best position…hopefully set them up with programs and things that they can follow,” Boone said of the offseason training protocols set in place before the lockout began at the beginning of the month.
“But we’ve had no contact,” the Yankees manager added Wednesday in a conference call to announce his coaching staff for 2022.
That means Boone not only could not wish Aaron Judge congratulations on his recent marriage, but he also couldn’t find out about the progress of Jameson Taillon and DJ LeMahieu, who had surgeries after the Yankees were eliminated from the postseason. He also can’t check in on how Aaron Hicks, who was coming off a season-ending wrist surgery, felt while playing winter ball.
He’s not too worried about Hicks and the others.
“Obviously once things are settled, you make your evaluations and they come in and get evaluated physically and see where he’s at. So it’s not ideal obviously that we can’t have that contact and know exactly what everyone’s doing, but we should get a decent idea in those early days of what we’re dealing with,” Boone said of catching up with players in Tampa once the lockout ends.
The manager said the Yankees’ coaches and trainers “set [players] up with programs to follow to be in a good position once this is all settled,” before the owners locked out the players on Dec. 1.
Negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement have been going slowly with the sides having met recently, but only to discuss fringe issues. The larger economic points are being left for more contentious meetings after the new year. The real pressure on the players, who do not get paychecks in the offseason, will start to build when the time to report for spring training nears. There are concerns that the lockout could last beyond the mid-February report dates, but Boone said that the Yankees will adapt if that happens.
“We’ve got a lot of experience with that here over the last couple years with what we’ve been through,” Boone said, referring to the league’s spring shutdown in March 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic and the three-week ramp-up to the abbreviated season. He added bench coach Carlos Mendoza will make “whatever adjustments we have to make.
“I feel good that we’re going to be able to handle them seamlessly and hopefully even have an advantage in whatever scenario we find ourselves in.”
In the meantime, Boone is working with his staff, which lost four coaches — Phil Nevin (third base), Reggie Willits (first base), Marcus Thames (hitting) and P.J. Pilittere (assistant hitting coach) — and added five.
Former Mets manager Luis Rojas, who will replace Nevin at third base, traveled to the Bronx from his home in the Dominican Republic to work with Boone.
“So we were able to spend some time together, we actually were out on the field, kind of talking through signs and talking through different nonverbal communication type things,” Boone said of his meeting with Rojas.
He said pitching coach Matt Blake, who will be going into his fourth season, has been working at the Stadium a lot and the entire staff will eventually get to the Bronx for some preparation.
“We’ll get together as a staff, probably, at some point, maybe in the month of January, whether it’s getting individual coaches up here at different times to kind of get a lay of the land, have those conversations, start really diving into what we want spring training to look like,” Boone said. “Obviously, we do have a lot of continuity within the staff as well. And most of the guys on the staff, especially with some of the player development guys that we’re bringing in, have relationships already established.”
The bottom line, however, is that the lockout prevents new Yankees coaches like Dillon Lawson, promoted from minor league hitting coordinator, from being able to get to really know the big league hitters he will be working with this season.
“One of the things that kind of sucks about the lockout obviously, is him not being able to continue to build those relationships. But before the lockout started, we had him on board and he was already starting to develop those relationships with guys and was able to have some meaningful sessions and conversations,” Boone said. “So I do feel like he’s off to a really good start with a lot of our players. Now, obviously, that goes on hold.”