{"id":892796,"date":"2026-10-24T07:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T07:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/892796\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T07:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T07:38:10","slug":"yankees-notes-boone-judge-massey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/892796\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees Notes: Boone, Judge, Massey"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Yankees made the decision to bring manager Aaron Boone back for a tenth season<\/a>. Boone, who\u2019ll become the seventh skipper in franchise history to reach a decade with the club, is under contract via the two-year extension he signed in February 2025.<\/p>\n

Owner Hal Steinbrenner told reporters on Wednesday that there\u2019d not yet been any conversations with Boone regarding another extension (link via Bryan Hoch of MLB.com<\/a>). While that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean they won\u2019t discuss that at some point, Boone said that managing on an expiring deal \u201cdoesn\u2019t bother (him) at all.\u201d He pointed out that players and coaches frequently work without long-term contractual certainty, though many teams prefer not to have their managers or top front office executive in a lame duck capacity.<\/p>\n

The Yankees allowed general manager Brian Cashman to hold his position on an expiring deal in 2026. The GM himself announced Wednesday that he and the team were finalizing an extension<\/a>, one that\u2019ll likely ensure that Cashman reaches three decades in the GM role. He\u2019s already by far the longest-tenured active general manager, having ascended to the job in February 1998.<\/p>\n

Pitching coach Matt Blake is also expected back<\/a>, no surprise given how well the Yankees have fared in that area in recent seasons. Steinbrenner was less committal on the offensive side on Wednesday, replying to a question about hitting coach James Rowson\u2019s status by saying the team still needed to discuss all coaching decisions. \u201cI\u2019m definitely focused on the offense and on the hitting,\u201d Steinbrenner told reporters (link via ESPN\u2019s Jorge Castillo<\/a>). \u201cI think it was a big part of, certainly a significant, part of why we didn\u2019t achieve what we wanted to achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n

The offense folded once\u00a0Aaron Judge<\/a> went on the injured list at the beginning of June. The Yankees were 24th in scoring after that point. Over the final four months of the season, only the Reds had a lower batting average. New York\u2019s .297 on-base percentage in that stretch was the worst in the majors.<\/p>\n

Judge missed most of the season to a rib fracture. He came back in early September but looked rusty over two weeks before suffering a right calf strain that ultimately wound up ending his season. Cashman said that Judge would go for follow-up testing on the rib but is expected to be ready for the start of Spring Training (relayed by Gary Phillips of The New York Daily News<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Regardless of the coaching decisions, New York\u2019s offense should look quite a bit different next season. Trent Grisham<\/a> and\u00a0Jazz Chisholm Jr.<\/a> are both impending free agents and seem unlikely to return. They\u2019ll also need to decide whether to retain\u00a0Giancarlo Stanton<\/a> and if they\u2019ll upgrade over either Ryan McMahon<\/a> or\u00a0Austin Wells<\/a> at third base and catcher, respectively.<\/p>\n

The infield should be a particular focus, especially how they\u2019ll replace Chisholm at the keystone. Anthony Volpe<\/a> and\u00a0Jos\u00e9 Caballero<\/a> project as the top internal options, presuming the Yankees turn the shortstop job to\u00a0George Lombard Jr.<\/a> It\u2019s a decent free agent second base class with Brandon Lowe<\/a> and\u00a0Luis Arraez<\/a> joining Chisholm and\u00a0Gleyber Torres<\/a> on the market. The Yanks could also turn to the trade front, where Ketel Marte<\/a> and\u00a0Xavier Edwards<\/a> are possibilities.<\/p>\n

Edwards has reportedly been a Yankee target in the past. Joel Sherman of The New York Post<\/a> notes that the Yankees have also had previous interest in Kansas City second baseman Michael Massey<\/a>. The 28-year-old is coming off a solid .274\/.305\/.430 season with 13 home runs for the Royals. He\u2019s had an up and down career and had a dismal 2025 campaign around an ankle sprain, but Massey puts the ball in play with average power. He\u2019s a lefty batter who hits a lot of pulled fly balls, a swing that\u2019d have some appeal at Yankee Stadium. Massey\u2019s low walk rates wouldn\u2019t help the Yankees\u2019 on-base concerns, but he\u2019s a strong defender with a decent hit\/power combination.<\/p>\n

The Royals are coming off a terrible season but unlikely to rebuild. Massey, who\u2019s controllable for two seasons and projected<\/a> by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz for a $3.2MM arbitration salary, is a decent role player who\u2019s currently their primary second baseman. He\u2019s not the kind of player teams are going to consider untouchable, yet it stands to reason K.C. would want major league pitching or outfield help in any return.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Yankees made the decision to bring manager Aaron Boone back for a tenth season. Boone, who\u2019ll become…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":892797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[1992,4260,332146,107641,363,99],"class_list":["post-892796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-aaron-boone","tag-aaron-judge","tag-james-rowson","tag-michael-massey","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=892796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/892797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=892796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=892796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=892796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}