Speaker 1: Yankees manager Aaron Boone joining us right now on FT.
Speaker 1: It's great to see you, Boonie, and yeah, how you doing, man,
Speaker 1: it's been a minute.
Speaker 2: You good, I'm good, I'm good. We're all kipnesses today.
Speaker 3: I seem good to see you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll lay that.
Speaker 3: I was just trying to show him thanks. Some of
Speaker 3: it still works.
Speaker 4: Some of the time, I miss that. I missed that.
Speaker 1: Hey, Boonie, I like your outfit right now, but I'm
Speaker 1: wondering if there will eventually be some alternate outfit that
Speaker 1: you get to wear. I saw that little news trickle
Speaker 1: in this morning, and it's fun to talk uniforms.
Speaker 4: So do you have anything for us?
Speaker 5: No? I mean that's just one of those things we've
Speaker 5: talked about loosely over the years of you know, you know,
Speaker 5: do do we consider it on some level?
Speaker 2: So you never know someday yes or no. Well, you know,
Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't.
Speaker 5: I don't have any expectation really one way or the other.
Speaker 5: I mean, I love our our our New York Blue jerseys,
Speaker 5: but whether that comes one day or not remains to
Speaker 5: be seen.
Speaker 6: Well, I mean, so it's not like the beards, because
Speaker 6: I like the Yankees unis like there's there's nothing more
Speaker 6: iconic and classic, and that's okay if we don't connect
Speaker 6: with a city. But that's my opinion. But is this
Speaker 6: discussion kind of like the same discussion you had with
Speaker 6: the Beards or was that a different level of discussion.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 5: That was probably obviously became more intense and more focused
Speaker 5: and got a lot of people involved. This is just
Speaker 5: something that's kind of been talked about over the years,
Speaker 5: Like you know, different people have brought it up, and
Speaker 5: so I think the fact that it's a story is
Speaker 5: just one of those things that it happened to be
Speaker 5: a story now, but it's it's one of those things
Speaker 5: we've again loosely talked about over the years, so you
Speaker 5: never know.
Speaker 3: Talking about some of the guys who wear those jerseys.
Speaker 3: Let's get off to one of those guys who are
Speaker 3: in a very hot start, ben Rice. What can you
Speaker 3: tell us about him? Because he looks pretty good early
Speaker 3: on so far.
Speaker 5: Yeah, he's he's just he's I shouldn't say turning into
Speaker 5: because we I feel like he was starting to turn
Speaker 5: into this last year. But you know, and I think
Speaker 5: he's one of the really outstanding hitters in Major League Baseball,
Speaker 5: Like he's you know, it's real good power, really good
Speaker 5: play discipline. You know, he's he's really dove into first
Speaker 5: base after coming up as a catcher, and I feel like,
Speaker 5: continue to make strides over there.
Speaker 2: So he's been awesome.
Speaker 5: He is, he is, Uh, you know, we think, we
Speaker 5: think gonna be one of the outstanding you know, middle
Speaker 5: of the order hitters in this league.
Speaker 2: Now for a while, did.
Speaker 6: You know he's gonna take that next step? When he
Speaker 6: showed up the spring training quite a bit larger, Like
Speaker 6: especially like when an adult puts on that much weight,
Speaker 6: You're like, wait, wow, how did he do that? And
Speaker 6: because he already had the good hitting skill, then that
Speaker 6: extra weight really elevated, you know, the power part of
Speaker 6: his game.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So in twenty four he gets called up for US
Speaker 5: and had some success but also had some failures too,
Speaker 5: but he was hitting the ball hard and showing all
Speaker 5: the signs of being a promising hitter. And then you know,
Speaker 5: like you said, fast forward to twenty five spring training,
Speaker 5: and it was noticeable, like his whatever fifteen pounds he
Speaker 5: put on, it was noticeable.
Speaker 2: It was just rugged.
Speaker 5: And last spring in twenty five, like from the first
Speaker 5: spring training game on through the season, like he was
Speaker 5: killing the ball. I mean just repeatedly hitting the ball
Speaker 5: hard time and time again. And last year I think famously,
Speaker 5: you know, hit into a lot of tough luck, like
Speaker 5: he you know, hit hit the ball hard all year
Speaker 5: into some tough luck, but still had over eight hundred
Speaker 5: ops and hit whatever mid twenties homer, He got five
Speaker 5: hundred and thirty played appearances, really established himself as a
Speaker 5: really good hitter. And now I think with his experience
Speaker 5: and with his knowledge and with that hitting skill, like
Speaker 5: he's just continuing to get better and better all the time.
Speaker 5: It's exciting.
Speaker 3: All right.
Speaker 6: One, I have a two part question, but the ones
Speaker 6: really quick. I think you'll answer pretty quick. Can Ben
Speaker 6: still catch at a big league level? And can you
Speaker 6: play him one hundred and sixty two games? Because sometimes
Speaker 6: you get a lot of not sometimes you always get
Speaker 6: a lot of flak when you have him on the bench,
Speaker 6: and as one hundred and sixty two games even like
Speaker 6: a realistic goal because this guy could be an MVP
Speaker 6: type of player if he continues hitting like he is.
Speaker 5: Yeah, one hundred and sixty two, what's the I think?
Speaker 5: I think he's played in every game but one so far,
Speaker 5: so I have him down today against Suarez, but he
Speaker 5: might be in the fourth inning, so he's he's he
Speaker 5: hits lefties, you know. I think that sweet spot for
Speaker 5: games played is always in that one fifty one fifty five.
Speaker 5: But he can certainly handle it. And then as far
Speaker 5: as the catching, I definitely think he can still catch.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 5: One of the reasons I haven't yet to this point
Speaker 5: is because, you know, we ask so much of him,
Speaker 5: and he's such a he's such a worker that in
Speaker 5: spring he just wanted to continue to dive into first
Speaker 5: base while also doing some of his catching stuff. So
Speaker 5: he was catching bullpens, doing all his catching work. You know,
Speaker 5: he shows up with the catchers here and does all
Speaker 5: the game prep like that with the catchers. But but
Speaker 5: I felt like he was also kind of getting overworked
Speaker 5: a little bit and and taxing him a little bit physically.
Speaker 5: And because he's such a you know, such an important
Speaker 5: hitter for us, and because he's continuing to experience and
Speaker 5: learned first base, we wanted him to kind of slow
Speaker 5: down a little bit on the catching and spring and
Speaker 5: really focus on first base. So I got him into
Speaker 5: a game late in spring behind the plate for a
Speaker 5: couple of innings, I would not hesitate. Like if we,
Speaker 5: you know, to make a move late in the game
Speaker 5: and it ended up with him being behind the plate
Speaker 5: for a couple innings, I would not hesitate to do that.
Speaker 5: But I've been a little hesitant as of now, especially
Speaker 5: as we get our sea legs into the season, to
Speaker 5: put them back there in like a starting role. But
Speaker 5: last year we kind of gradually built him up and
Speaker 5: he had some success back there in the second half
Speaker 5: of the season.
Speaker 2: So we'll see, we'll see as we continue to go.
Speaker 5: But first and foremost, I want his bat in there
Speaker 5: in the middle of the lineup all right.
Speaker 6: So that people don't think, yeah, that's that's good.
Speaker 4: That's good.
Speaker 6: So people don't think you think he's perfect. He's really
Speaker 6: not done that well in ABS. Have you given him
Speaker 6: a hard time for that? And why the heck is
Speaker 6: Judge not challenged more? I thought this. I thought a
Speaker 6: BS was like the Otani rule, which we'll get to later.
Speaker 6: I thought ABS was made for Aaron Judge because they
Speaker 6: used to crush him on the bottom part of his
Speaker 6: own So first, Ben Rice, do you give him a
Speaker 6: hard time, and do you tell Judge, hey, start using
Speaker 6: it a little more, big guy.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so so as I treat every player different and Benny,
Speaker 5: if I crushed him on, that would be crushed. So
Speaker 5: I don't want him to lose his nerve to challenge,
Speaker 5: even though he's had a couple of rough ones, like
Speaker 5: I still need him to because he does control his
Speaker 5: own so well. I want him to, you know, not
Speaker 5: be too crushed by that Judge. Judge challenged last night,
Speaker 5: and so yeah, I think there's some more spots there
Speaker 5: where where Judge he could because because obviously because they
Speaker 5: pitched so careful to him, so they're you know a
Speaker 5: lot of times, you know, throwing them balls on purpose
Speaker 5: and sometimes those get called So but he'll he'll be
Speaker 5: good with it over time.
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Speaker 6: So I got to get to are you do you
Speaker 6: think more? First of all your opinion of it? Second
Speaker 6: of all, where do you think the majority of managers
Speaker 6: not named Dave Roberts stand on the Otani rule?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's okay.
Speaker 5: Look, he's you know, he's a new unique player obviously,
Speaker 5: and and I think I think I haven't sunk my
Speaker 5: teeth into it that much, honestly, Like I saw Craig's
Speaker 5: Craig's comments, but I'm I think I'm okay with it.
Speaker 5: I think it's you know, ultimately probably been a good
Speaker 5: thing for our game.
Speaker 1: Okay, Hey, let's swing it back to the Yanks. A
Speaker 1: couple guys that should be back somewhat soon. We'll start
Speaker 1: with Volpi since he just homered. You know, what do
Speaker 1: you expect from him? When do you expect him? And
Speaker 1: is there any concern about a player who is coming
Speaker 1: off of the shoulder surgery and how they're going to perform.
Speaker 1: I know that can get tricky for really any position.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I'm expecting. If anything, it's better. You know,
Speaker 2: he's dealing.
Speaker 5: He's healthy and and we've given this the right amount
Speaker 5: of time and he has had zero issues with the
Speaker 5: shoulder now for you know, really the last couple of
Speaker 5: months as he's built up, he's checked every box and.
Speaker 2: Recovered really well. Every day.
Speaker 5: If anything, he's been wanting more and faster. So uh,
Speaker 5: he's done a great job and kind of crushed the
Speaker 5: rehab process in his build up now, I would say,
Speaker 5: you know, he started with triple A this week. He
Speaker 5: was in double A last week where he got three
Speaker 5: or four games. He'll play back to back again. I
Speaker 5: think he's getting five games in this week, you know,
Speaker 5: like that five to seven innings. Maybe by the end
Speaker 5: of the week he'll pop a seven to nine inning games.
Speaker 5: So kind of like spring training and then we'll see
Speaker 5: where we're at the following week. As far as getting
Speaker 5: getting a little more, the one thing he's done is
Speaker 5: even leading into his rehab, he got a ton of
Speaker 5: at bats down and down at Florida, live at bats
Speaker 5: where you know, he had over fifty at bats before
Speaker 5: he even set foot on the in a rehab game.
Speaker 5: So that's been good. So he's gotten a lot of work.
Speaker 5: But probably, you know, realistically still you know, ten days,
Speaker 5: two weeks away, I would think.
Speaker 6: Is it something that when he comes back he's full go,
Speaker 6: or is it when you bring pitchers back it's like, okay,
Speaker 6: eight through seventy in his last outing, it's time to
Speaker 6: bring him in. And because at shortstop you want his
Speaker 6: gold glove defense there. But then if you're mixing in
Speaker 6: other guys four out of seven days, how does that
Speaker 6: work for you guys? And do you just bang that
Speaker 6: all out in the minor leagues and say when he's ready,
Speaker 6: he's ready and he's the guy to go.
Speaker 5: Yeah, like when we when we bring him, I want
Speaker 5: him to be ready to pretty much go every day.
Speaker 5: That doesn't you know? Now, I treat April a little
Speaker 5: bit different with some of our guys. You know, you're
Speaker 5: still building up that kind of five five in a row,
Speaker 5: eight in a row, thirteen in a row that you
Speaker 5: inevitably have. That's that's still a little unique. So I
Speaker 5: try to be mindful of that with some of our
Speaker 5: guys in April. So you know I probably treated like
Speaker 5: that a little bit. And we got a guy named
Speaker 5: Cabbyerro on our team that's really good by the way,
Speaker 5: that I have no problem throwing out there. So yeah,
Speaker 5: so when he when he's ready to come to us,
Speaker 5: he'll be built up and pretty much ready to go.
Speaker 2: But you know.
Speaker 5: A little bit of that final build up still exists
Speaker 5: that first month of the season.
Speaker 3: How about your starting rotation, I know you'd be excited
Speaker 3: to get some of those guys back to What can
Speaker 3: you tell us about Garrett, Cole and Rodin? How far
Speaker 3: aware are they?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 5: So Garrett, Garrett's throwing today or no, tomorrow, I'm sorry tomorrow.
Speaker 5: He threw his he threw his first rehab start for
Speaker 5: Double A last week and then and he's slated to
Speaker 5: go tomorrow against in Hudson Valley our IA team and
Speaker 5: then Rodin will be on Friday for Hudson Valley our
Speaker 5: High A team. Carlos is probably a little head of Garrett,
Speaker 5: So you know, Garrett's still you know, a little slower,
Speaker 5: more disciplined with his build up. Carlos is a little
Speaker 5: higher pitch threshold right now. So you know, probably a
Speaker 5: few weeks a couple few weeks for Carlos and probably
Speaker 5: a little bit more than that for for Garrett. We'll see,
Speaker 5: but you know, we're not gonna certainly rush anything, you know,
Speaker 5: especially with Garrett. You know, we want to give it
Speaker 5: that full time.
Speaker 3: Sure. Sure, But if someone who has been holding down
Speaker 3: the four for your starting rotations so far has been
Speaker 3: Cam Schlitler has been unbelievable so far, how would you say,
Speaker 3: I know, he's been dealing with the social media stuff,
Speaker 3: with that whole Boston thing and all that, a how
Speaker 3: would you have been dealing with it back in the
Speaker 3: day off social media was around when you guys are playing,
Speaker 3: and what do you what do you tell him? Then,
Speaker 3: basically you're just like, hey, the best way to silence
Speaker 3: them is just go out and pitch well, or what
Speaker 3: do you What are the conbos like with him about it?
Speaker 8: The comos are like, let's let's let's let's get get off.
Speaker 8: Let's you know, let's let's lay low a little bit,
Speaker 8: all right, Cam as far as he handles it great,
Speaker 8: I mean, it doesn't affect it.
Speaker 2: He does like, if anything, it fuels him a little bit.
Speaker 5: But yeah, he's he's a very talented, obviously very good
Speaker 5: and skilled picture. But he's also very confident and a
Speaker 5: very competitive kid. So he handles it all really well.
Speaker 5: And but that being said, we hey, let's slow it
Speaker 5: down a little bit, all right, buddy.
Speaker 6: That's that's not your that's not your area. You don't
Speaker 6: need to take care of the social media for them.
Speaker 6: They can they can handle it. Let them let him be.
Speaker 6: That's the new rivalry. That's the new Yankees Red Sox rivalry.
Speaker 6: Which is my question, is it the same as you
Speaker 6: played because you're in it right now. You're in the
Speaker 6: city of Boston. You guys rolled in. It's still look
Speaker 6: cold do you feel like that rivalry is the Sale Bowl. Hold, Okay,
Speaker 6: it's freaking freezing, I get it. But John Carlo made
Speaker 6: it a little bit hotter last night. But my thing is,
Speaker 6: isn't this the new place that the rivalry kind of
Speaker 6: plays out a little bit?
Speaker 2: Maybe? Maybe?
Speaker 5: I mean, I always feel like it's big when we come, Like,
Speaker 5: you know, I've known Boston's on that schedule, like in
Speaker 5: my in my world, my job, like you're so consumed
Speaker 5: with the day, but you also know, hey, we're going
Speaker 5: to Boston, We're going to Fenway next week.
Speaker 2: It's like, so it's always on your radar.
Speaker 5: It always feels big, it always feels exciting, all those
Speaker 5: kind of things. It was certainly that way when I
Speaker 5: played when I got here in two thousand and three
Speaker 5: and my first when I came over at the trade
Speaker 5: deadline in my first regular season games at Fenway Park
Speaker 5: in August, and Tim Naring, who at the time who's
Speaker 5: with us with the Yankees now at the time was
Speaker 5: with Sinnattie told me, hey, it's a different animal that
Speaker 5: Yankee Red Sox thing, especially now three was peaking right,
Speaker 5: And he was right, it was. It was pretty pretty intense,
Speaker 5: but I feel like that way now too.
Speaker 1: Hey, last one for me, and then I think KRATS
Speaker 1: will finish with a fun one boonie. Have you had
Speaker 1: conversations or just even like a positive text vibe to
Speaker 1: Carlos Mendoza, your buddy going through it right now? Like
Speaker 1: how much communication goes on besides just some words of
Speaker 1: encouragement when you have good friends in the industry that
Speaker 1: are going through the losing streaks that almost everyone's gone through.
Speaker 1: But it's just it's early, it's grabbing attention, It's New
Speaker 1: York high payroll team, the whole deal. So it is
Speaker 1: like the sky is falling across town.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Obviously, Mendy and I are very close, so we're
Speaker 5: usually in contact. He's one of the there's probably you know,
Speaker 5: four or five managers that I keep in kind of
Speaker 5: regular touch with that check in on each other, Like
Speaker 5: I have a.
Speaker 2: Real reverence and respect for the fraternity. And then within
Speaker 2: those you know that fraternity, there's a few guys that
Speaker 2: are really close to me and close friends, and I
Speaker 2: would put Carlos in that category. So typically we talk
Speaker 2: every couple few weeks. I talked to him a few
Speaker 2: days ago just to.
Speaker 5: You know, obviously check in and uh, you know, talk,
Speaker 5: you know, just be supportive and whatever. So obviously they're
Speaker 5: going through it, you know, I can I understand that,
Speaker 5: especially in New York. You know, he's it's a challenging
Speaker 5: time for them. But I also know what a talented
Speaker 5: guy he is, what a great guy is, and and
Speaker 5: that he's also you know, cut out and equipped to
Speaker 5: handle all of it. So yeah, it just kind of
Speaker 5: offer a little support. And but he's uh, he's great
Speaker 5: people and and and I think a great manager.
Speaker 6: Putting a video surf and I want to go back
Speaker 6: to the days when I played for you. You were
Speaker 6: my manager. The only time you ever put me in
Speaker 6: the game besides catching, was to pitch. Is there any chance?
Speaker 6: Is there any chance who had a better chance to
Speaker 6: play third? Aaron Judge who was taking ground balls there
Speaker 6: for me?
Speaker 5: Judge, I'm saying, gratzy, I might have thrown you over there.
Speaker 5: I have a feeling Jedgie might have done it better
Speaker 5: than you. But I would have thrown you out there
Speaker 5: at third. I would have definitely thrown I would have
Speaker 5: thrown you out there at third. Let's let's let it rip.
Speaker 6: This keeps me, This keeps me going. But could Judge
Speaker 6: play an entire game at third base with or without
Speaker 6: you losing your job?
Speaker 2: Well, we're not gonna find out.
Speaker 6: Okay, okay, we're not gonna find that.
Speaker 2: Out anytime soon.
Speaker 5: So every now and then, Judge likes to, you know sometimes,
Speaker 5: you know, in spring, I'll say, hey, go get a
Speaker 5: first basement glove.
Speaker 2: Throw it off. We got some media members over there watching.
Speaker 5: Whatever, so obviously you know he takes a few grounders
Speaker 5: with the fellows and yeah, that's gonna get some attention.
Speaker 4: That's fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, get the headlines rolling. Kratz has a cannon,
Speaker 1: so I believe in you Kratz. They just would have
Speaker 1: to hit it right to you, but otherwise you'd be great, boonie.
Speaker 1: Great to catch up, man, it's good to see you.
Speaker 1: We appreciate it the time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you bet, take care of guys. Good to see all. Yeah,