Aaron Boone was already a polarizing figure for Yankees fans. Now, he’s a lightning rod for the entire American League.
The Yankees manager, who helmed the AL in Tuesday night’s MLB All-Star game, left fans baffled at why he picked the Athletics’ Brent Rooker, the Mariners’ Randy Arozarena and the Rays’ Jonathan Aranda for the tiebreaker swing-off, but he explained his rationale postgame.
“We had to pick our guys [Monday],” Boone told reporters. “Wanted to make sure I picked guys I knew would be in the game there and still hot. That was my choice.”
After the American League rallied in the ninth to tie the game 6-6, Boone opted against bona fide sluggers like Aaron Judge, Cal Raleigh and Junior Caminero for the home run shootout that would decide the game.
The Post’s Jon Heyman noted that “travel plans” impacted some starters’ ability to participate.
The manager’s decisions backfired, with the Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber hitting three home runs in the second round to deliver the National League the win.
Rooker, who participated in Monday’s Home Run Derby, has 20 homers this season. Arozarena has 17 and Aranda has 11.
By comparison, Raleigh has 38, Judge has 35 and Caminero has 23.
Boone, though, explained that he wanted to avoid selecting hitters who had been removed from the game innings ago – including Raleigh, Judge and Caminero, who all started the game.
“We weren’t going to switch. We picked our players yesterday, then it was just the matter of picking the order,” Boone said. “You have a plan going in. You know the starters are playing half the game, you got a couple of guys nursing through some things so you’re protecting a couple of guys too and keeping it shorter for them. You plan for that going in.”
Fans took to social media to express their disbelief over Boone’s decisions.
“Fire Boone (as AL All Star manager),” one fan wrote on X.
“12 years as a player. 8th year as a manager. Aaron Boone is still finding new ways to lose baseball games,” wrote another. “Astonishing.”
“I can tell Aaron Boone managed this game like it was a World Series game by the way he blew it,” said a third.
Rooker hit two homers, Arozarena clubbed one and Aranda came up empty, which wasn’t enough to best one from the Marlins’ Kyle Stowers along with the three from Schwarber.