Olney: Aaron Boone has always done this job his way — will it be enough?
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Buster Olney, ESPN Senior Writer
The visiting manager’s office in Dodger Stadium is about the size of a small laundry room, and with nine broadcasters stuffed into this space before Game 2 of the World Series, Aaron Boone had to step around toes as he walked in. “Hi, y’all,” the New York Yankees manager said pleasantly.
About 18 hours before, Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman had clubbed the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history, an early body blow for the Yankees in a best-of-seven series. Boone was asked how he was doing. “I feel all right,” he replied evenly.
Around the world, Yankees fans lambasted Boone’s bullpen choices, his baseball acumen and his stewardship of the team — as they often have in his seven-season tenure as manager.
After Game 1, Derek Jeter, Boone’s former teammate and now a Fox analyst, was among those to do the ripping, questioning Boone’s decision to take out Gerrit Cole after 88 pitches. Others criticized Boone’s choice of Nestor Cortes — who surrendered Freeman’s grand slam in his first appearance in 37 days — over reliever Tim Hill.
In his office before Game 2, Boone reviewed his choices, matter-of-factly walking through his reasoning — even volunteering his own doubt about a decision that hadn’t really been raised by fans or media. He wondered if he should’ve asked Luke Weaver, who had accumulated 19 pitches by the end of the ninth inning, to at least start the bottom of the 10th inning. “That’s the one …” before his voice trailed off.
With the Yankees now down 2-0 to the Dodgers in the World Series, it seems inevitable that when Boone is introduced at Yankee Stadium before Game 3 on Monday, there will be a refrain of boos. It is likely to be repeated whenever he walks onto the field to affect pitching changes. Long before Boone’s tenure, this has been the reality for any Yankees manager or general manager. The mob reflex mirrors the response of an icon of the franchise, the late owner George Steinbrenner: If you lose, every choice you make will be shredded.
The intensity of the response heightens the inherent pressure of these front-facing Yankees jobs, and the cumulative effect can bend or even warp a personality. Billy Martin’s health seemed to worsen during his five separate tenures as Yankees’ manager. When Joe Torre’s book about the Yankees years was published, the criticism of Cashman hardened the general manager — compelled him to do the work more forcefully, rather than try to placate, as he often did with Torre. Joe Girardi, Boone’s predecessor, felt responsible for everyone around him because of the looming possibility there would be firings. Looking back, he says he might have put too much pressure on himself.
But some of Boone’s colleagues, as well as his brother Bret, say they believe that Aaron is mostly unchanged through years in this managerial slow cooker, with his typically positive demeanor and gregariousness resolute, even in the worst moments.
“It’s almost like he’s born for this,” Cashman said. “He disperses credit and takes blame. He keeps his cool in the dugout, because of his demeanor. … This job will harden you and make you do things you wouldn’t do. Sometimes you go along to get along, and you start to change. None of that’s ever happened. He is still true to who he is. He’s the exact same person we hired. We got one of the good ones.”
In a phone interview before the World Series, Boone said, “I’ve always envisioned that I’d be able to handle that, going in. I still feel the same way. That’s not to say there haven’t been some hard moments or tough times that you go through — moments where it gets a little lonely. But overall, it’s been incredibly rewarding, and for the most part, I love it.”
Girardi recalls that when he served as the bench coach for Joe Torre, he thought he had a feel for the challenges of being the Yankees manager.
“But you really don’t, until you’ve actually been through it,” he said, thinking of his stint from 2008-2017 — a period during which they last won a championship. “And I think you have to go through both sides of it to really understand it — the good, and the bad. As you go through it more, you understand the pressure the players are under — all of the coverage they get — and you understand the importance of being positive and supporting the players, no matter what.”
Because while playing a sport filled with failure, the Yankees are often shrouded in negative feedback. They will be cheered at the outset of Game 3, and that fervor of Yankees fans can wear on opposing players. But if the Yankees begin to struggle, the frustration in the stands flows freely — and the person responsible for lineup and pitching choices is going to hear it. That was once Girardi, and now it is Aaron Boone.
“I think he does a fantastic job, because he’s always under scrutiny,” Girardi said. “Because that’s the job in New York, unless you win a championship. You could overachieve with a team that people thought would win 90 games, and you win 92-93 games — and the response is, ‘Yeah, but they didn’t win a World Series.'”
Cashman said he’s not sure how much Boone listens to talk radio, or if he absorbs the fan and media criticism. “I don’t get the sense that it guides him in any way, shape or form,” he said. “He pours everything he has into [the work], and then lets it go.”
Bret Boone said, “He’s the same dude … He hasn’t changed one iota. As a 51-year-old man, he is the same person as he was when he was a kid.”
Aaron has been ejected by umpires more than any of his peers in recent years, and when these eruptions occur, their mother will call Bret and ask him, “What is your brother doing?” They will laugh together, because through the lens of time they see him responding as he did as a child when Bret — four years older than Aaron — would rob his little brother of Wiffle ball glory by ruling a home run as a foul ball. Aaron would react in the same way he does to umpires: indignant, with outward expression of being unfairly wronged.
Bret Boone sees much of his father in Aaron. Bob Boone, now 76, was respected by teammates in his long career as a big league player and manager for being straightforward, reliable.
“High character, honest to a fault,” said Bret, who recalled how friends in the game asked him why, as a player in the winter of 2004, Aaron Boone had volunteered to the Yankees that he had blown out his knee playing basketball — a violation of his contract. “That’s just the way he is,” Bret responded.
Bret said that like their father, Aaron will go to work very early in the day — “He’s a grinder, just like Dad’ — and Bret encourages his brother to back off some. “Sometimes you got to get to the yard late,” Bret said, “and throw it against the wall and just let the players play.”
But there’s another reason Boone arrives early. He likes being at the park, with his colleagues, working to solve problems. Brad Ausmus is at the end of his first year as bench coach of the Yankees, and before this, he really didn’t know Boone beyond pleasantries exchanged as opposing players earlier in their lives.
During spring training, he shared a condo with Boone, and he remembers Boone greeting him over morning coffee with the familiar fan chant: “LET’S GO YANKEES.” When they drove to the ballpark together, the music was always the same. “‘Eighties,” Ausmus said. “It’s always ’80s.” Stevie Nicks, the Pretenders, Don Henley. Boone has long maintained that if he were left on a desert island and he could listen to only one band, that would be Hall and Oates. When Boone drives his daughter Bella, she will eventually ask him, with hope: “Can we listen to my music now?”
In describing Boone, Ausmus’ observation was simple: “He’s kind of a goofball,” Ausmus said, laughing.
Boone is genial and respectful in his exchanges with reporters, but that part of him that abhors unfairness — like those foul balls wrongly called by his older brother — has come out occasionally. During the American League Championship Series, the Yankees blew a lead in the ninth inning of Game 3 against Cleveland, when it appeared they were on the verge of taking a three games-to-none lead. A reporter asked a question that seemed to suggest that perhaps the Yankees’ staff assumed they would win the game: “Do you feel like the bench might’ve felt ‘We got this in the bag,’ so to speak?”
Boone snapped impatiently, “Come on. No. ‘Got this in the bag’? Stop it with that.”
Boone has a de facto sounding board. His father stays up to watch the Yankees game, and they have spoken afterward, as Aaron decompresses. He invited Joe Torre to spring training, and the two exchange texts. He shares conversations with Jim Leyland, who was inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame last summer. He’ll have breakfast with bullpen coach Mike Harkey.
In the meeting with broadcasters before Game 2, Boone replayed some of his decisions with that room. He had thought about taking out Cole after the sixth inning, he said, after conversations with Cole, because he sensed the pitcher was close to spent. He stuck with Cole, and after Teoscar Hernandez opened the bottom of the seventh with an eight-pitch at-bat that concluded with a single, Boone went to the mound without making a motion to the bullpen, leaning toward removing Cole.
If Cole had pushed back and made a case to stay in, would Boone have left him in?
“Possibly,” Boone said. But Cole didn’t, so the manager pulled him after 88 pitches — the decision that drew scrutiny from Jeter after the Yankees lost.
In these moments, he leans on that sounding board, on his family — and mostly, on his own sense of self.
“Through everything, even through the lowest of moments,” Boone said, “I think I have a healthy perspective,” he said.
These days, he’ll need it.
In the new 12-team College Football Playoff format, there is an added emphasis on conference championships. The four highest-ranked conference champions receive a first-round bye and a fifth conference champion is guaranteed a spot in the field. Those champions will be determined by conference title games held Dec. 6-7.
But in a college football landscape that has mostly done away with divisions and with some conferences expanding to as many as 18 teams, it can be difficult to figure out who is in line to reach those conference title games.
We’re here to help out. Below are the list of tiebreakers for each league to help determine conference championship game participants.
Conference’s tiebreaker policy
Two-team tie:
1. Head-to-head
2. Win percentage against common opponents
3. Win percentage against common opponents from top-to-bottom of the conference standings (breaking ties among tied teams)
4. Combined win percentage of conference opponents
5. Higher ranking by the Team Rating Score metric (from SportSource Analytics)
6. Draw administered by the ACC commissioner
Three-plus team tie: In case of a tie for both conference championship spots, once the tiebreaker identifies one championship game representative, it will start over with the remaining tied teams.
1. Combined head-to-head win percentage among the tied teams (if all tied teams are common opponents)
2. If all tied teams are not common opponents, if any tied team defeated each of the other tied teams
2a. If all tied teams are not common opponents, and no tied team defeated each of the other tied teams, but a tied team lost to each of the other tied teams, that team is eliminated
3. Win percentage against common opponents
4. Win percentage against common opponents from top-to-bottom of the conference standings
5. Combined win percentage of conference opponents
6. Higher ranking by the Team Rating Score metric (from SportSource Analytics)
7. Draw administered by the ACC commissioner
Conference’s tiebreaker policy
Two-team tie:
1. Head-to-head
2. Win percentage against common conference opponents
3. Win percentage against the next-highest common opponent in the conference standings; in case of tied teams in standings, use each team’s win percentage against all of those teams
4. Combined win percentage in conference games of conference opponents (strength of conference schedule)
5. Total wins over the 12-game season (only one win against teams from FCS or lower division will be counted)
6. Higher ranking by the Team Rating Score metric (from SportSource Analytics)
7. Coin toss
Three-plus team tie: In case of a tie for both conference championship spots, once the tiebreaker identifies one championship game representative, it will start over with the remaining tied teams. When reduced to two tied teams, the two-team tiebreakers will be used.
1. Combined head-to-head among tied teams (if all tied teams are common opponents)
1a. If all tied teams are not common opponents, if any tied team defeated each of the other tied teams
1b. If all tied teams are not common opponents, and no tied team defeated each of the other tied teams, but a tied team lost to each of the other tied teams, that team is eliminated
2. Win percentage against all common opponents
3. Record against next-highest common opponent in conference standings; in case of tied teams in standings, use each team’s win percentage against all of those teams
4. Combined win percentage in conference games of conference opponents (strength of conference schedule)
5. Total wins over the 12-game season (only one win against teams from FCS or lower division will be counted)
6. Higher ranking by the Team Rating Score metric (from SportSource Analytics)
7. Coin toss
Conference’s tiebreaker policy
Two-team tie:
1. Head-to-head
2. Win percentage against common conference opponents
3. Win percentage against common opponents from top-to-bottom of the conference standings (breaking ties among tied teams)
4. Combined conference win percentage of conference opponents
5. Higher ranking by the Team Rating Score metric (from SportSource Analytics)
6. Draw administered by the Big Ten commissioner
Three-plus team tie: In case of a tie for both conference championship spots, once the tiebreaker identifies one championship game representative, it will start over with the remaining tied teams. When reduced to two tied teams, the two-team tiebreakers will be used.
1. Combined head-to-head among tied teams
1a. If all tied teams are not common opponents, if any tied team defeated each of the other tied teams
2. Win percentage against all common conference opponents
3. Win percentage against common opponents from top-to-bottom of the conference standings (breaking ties among tied teams)
4. Combined conference win percentage of conference opponents
5. Higher ranking by the Team Rating Score metric (from SportSource Analytics)
6. Draw administered by the Big Ten commissioner
Conference’s tiebreaker policy
Two-team tie:
1. Head-to-head
2. Win percentage against common conference opponents
3. Win percentage against common opponents from top-to-bottom of the conference standings (breaking ties among tied teams: if a two-team tiebreaker will not break a tie, combined records against tied common opponents will be used)
4. Combined conference win percentage of conference opponents
5. Higher relative total scoring margin against all conference opponents (from SportSource Analytics)
6. Random draw
Three-plus team tie: In case of a tie for both conference championship spots, once the tiebreaker identifies one championship game representative, it will start over with the remaining tied teams.
1. Combined head-to-head among tied teams (if all tied teams are common opponents)
1a. If all tied teams are not common opponents, if any tied team defeated each of the other tied teams
1b. If all tied teams are not common opponents, and no tied team defeated each of the other tied teams, but a tied team lost to each of the other tied teams, that team is eliminated
2. Record against all common conference opponents
3. Win percentage against common opponents from top-to-bottom of the conference standings (breaking ties among tied teams; if a two-team tiebreaker will not break a tie, combined records against tied common opponents will be used)
4. Combined conference win percentage of conference opponents
5. Higher relative total scoring margin against all conference opponents (from SportSource Analytics)
6. Random draw
Conference’s tiebreaker policy
Two-team tie:
1. Head-to-head
2. If one team is ranked in the latest CFP rankings (and didn’t lose in the final weekend of the regular season)
2a. If one team is ranked in the latest CFP rankings and lost in the final weekend of the regular season, a composite average of selected metrics will be used
2b. If both teams are ranked, the higher-ranked team that didn’t lose in the final weekend of the regular season (if both lose, a composite average of metrics)
2c. If neither team is ranked in the latest CFP rankings, a composite average of selected metrics will be used
3. Win percentage against common conference opponents
4. Overall win percentage (conference and nonconference) excluding exempt games
5. Coin toss
Three-plus team tie: In case of a tie for both conference championship spots, once the tiebreaker identifies one championship game representative, it will start over with the remaining tied teams.
1. Combined head-to-head (if all teams played each other)
1a. If one tied team defeated all other tied teams
2. If the highest-ranked team in the latest CFP rankings that didn’t lose in the final weekend of the regular season
2a. If the highest-ranked team loses in final weekend of regular season, a composite average of selected metrics will be used
2b. If multiple ranked teams in the CFP rankings, the highest ranked team(s) that wins in the final weekend of the regular season
2c. If all ranked teams lose on the final weekend, a composite average of selected metrics will be used
2d. If no teams are ranked in the final CFP rankings, a composite average of selected metrics will be used
3. Win percentage against common conference opponents
4. Overall win percentage (conference and nonconference) excluding exempt games
5. Coin toss
Conference’s tiebreaker policy
Two-team tie and three-team tie:
1. Head-to-head
2. Highest CFP rankings going into the final weekend (if team wins in the final weekend)
3. Highest average ranking of four computer rankings (Connelly SP+, SportSource, ESPN SOR, KPI Rankings)
4. Highest average ranking of two computer rankings (SportSource, KPI Rankings)
5. Highest most recently published multiyear football Academic Progress Rate (if same, most recent year)
6. Draw administered by commissioner’s designee
Conference’s tiebreaker policy
Two-team tie:
1. Head-to-head
2. Win percentage against common opponents
3. Win percentage against common opponents based on MAC finish (breaking ties) from top-to-bottom of conference
4. Combined conference win percentage of conference opponents
5. Higher ranking by Team Rating Score metric (SportSource Analytics)
6. Draw administered by MAC commissioner
Three-team tie:
1. Combined head-to-head (if all teams played each other)
2. If one tied team defeated all other tied teams
3. Win percentage against all common opponents
4. Win percentage against all common opponents based on finish (with ties broken)
5. Combined conference win percentage of conference opponents
6. Higher ranking by Team Rating Score metric (SportSource Analytics)
7. Draw administered by MAC commissioner
Conference’s tiebreaker policy
Two-team tie:
1. Head-to-head
2. Highest CFP ranking (if team wins in the final weekend)
2a. If only or both CFP ranked teams loses in the final weekend (or if there is no ranked teams), an average of metrics will be used
3. Overall win percentage (conference and nonconference)
4. Record against the next-highest team in the conference standings (tied teams will be lumped together if tied teams played all those teams)
5. Win percentage against common conference opponents
6. Coin toss conducted virtually by the commissioner
Three-plus team tie:
1. Combined head-to-head (if all teams played each other)
2. If one tied team defeated all other tied teams
3. Highest CFP ranking among teams to win in the final weekend
4. Average of selected metrics (if ranked team loses or if no teams ranked)
5. Overall win percentage against all opponents (conference and nonconference); maximum one win against FCS or lower-division team
6. Record against the next-highest team in the conference standings (tied teams will be lumped together if tied teams played all those teams)
7. Win percentage against common conference opponents
8. Drawing conducted virtually by the commissioner
Conference’s tiebreaker policy
Two-team tie
1. Head-to-head
2. Overall win percentage
3. Win percentage against the next-highest team in the division standings (lumping together tied teams)
4. Win percentage against all common nondivisional conference opponents
5. Higher-ranked teams in the CFP rankings (if it wins in the final regular season week); if the highest-ranked team loses, an average of selected computer rankings (Anderson & Hester, Massey, Colley and Wolfe)
6. If no team is ranked in the CFP rankings, an average of selected computer rankings (Anderson & Hester, Massey, Colley and Wolfe)
7. Overall win percentage (conference and nonconference) against FBS teams
8. Coin toss
Three-plus team tie: (Teams will not revert to two-team tiebreaker once three-plus team tiebreaker is trimmed to two.)
1. Combined head-to-head
2. Divisional win percentage
3. Win percentage against the next-highest team in the division standings (lumping together tied teams)
4. Highest-ranked team in the CFP rankings (if they win in the final weekend of regular season); if that team loses, an average of selected computer rankings
5. If no team is ranked in the CFP rankings, an average of selected computer rankings (Anderson & Hester, Massey, Colley and Wolfe)
6. Overall win percentage (conference and nonconference) against FBS teams
7. Draw lots (conducted by commissioner)
Check out the ESPN college football hub page for the latest news, analysis, schedules, rankings and more.
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Jesse Rogers, ESPN Staff Writer
SAN ANTONIO — Free agent pitcher Kyle Hendricks has agreed to a one year, $2.5 million contract with the Los Angeles Angels, sources familiar with the situation told ESPN.
Hendricks, 34, posted a 5.92 ERA for the Chicago Cubs last season but was better in the second half after a stint in the bullpen. His ERA was 4.41 from mid-July to the end of the regular season. He threw 7⅓ shutout innings in his last start as a Cub in late September after spending the first 11 years of his career with Chicago.
The Angels are hoping Hendricks finds more consistency in 2025, similar to what he displayed at times late in 2024. They also have a young pitching staff that needs mentoring. Hendricks can help in that department as well.
Hendricks won the ERA title in 2016, helping the Cubs to a World Series title. He was the last member of that team still playing for the Cubs until he became a free agent after the 2024 season. Overall, he’s 97-81 with a 3.68 ERA.
Hendricks is from the Los Angeles area, having gone to Capistrano Valley High School in Mission Viejo, California. He was originally drafted by the Angels in the 39th round in 2008 before attending Dartmouth. Additionally, his dad worked in the Angels’ ticket office for six years when Hendricks was a teenager.
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Jesse Rogers, ESPN Staff Writer
SAN ANTONIO — Juan Soto will take his time surveying the free agent market before signing with a team, according to his agent Scott Boras.
Speaking at the general manager’s meetings Wednesday, Boras indicated that Soto desires a “thorough” vetting before making a decision.
“Due to the volume of interest and Juan’s desire to hear [from teams], I can’t put a timeframe on it, but it’s going to be a very thorough process for him,” Boras said. “He wants to meet people personally. He wants to talk with them. He wants to hear from them.”
That includes ownership, even for the New York Yankees, for whom he played in 2024 and hit 41 home runs with a league-leading 128 runs scored. Soto helped New York to a World Series appearance, but that doesn’t necessarily give the Yankees a leg up on the competition to sign him.
“He wants ownership that’s going to support that they are going win annually,” Boras said. “Owners want to meet with Juan and sit down and talk with him about what they’re going to provide for their franchise short term and long term.”
Soto’s overall deal is likely to be at least the second largest in MLB history behind Shohei Ohtani‘s 10-year, $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Boras refused to compare the two players, but stressed Soto’s age (26) as a distinctive factor in teams’ pursuit of his client. Ohtani was 29 when he hit free agency.
“I don’t think Ohtani has much to do with Juan Soto at all,” Boras said. “It’s not something we discuss or consider. … He’s in an age category that separates him.”
Both New York teams have spoken to Boras already, though there are a handful of other big-market franchises that could be in play for his services, including the San Francisco Giants and Toronto Blue Jays.
Boras was asked how the competitive balance tax on payrolls could impact Soto’s free agency.
“I don’t think tax considerations are the focal point when you’re talking about a business opportunity where you can make literally billions of dollars by acquiring somebody like this,” Boras said.
Boras and Soto are only at the beginning stages of what could be a drawn-out process. One thing going for the player, in Boras’ estimation, is that Soto is “pretty well known” considering he has already been on three teams and played in 43 playoff games, including twice in the World Series.
In his agent’s eyes, every winning team should be interested.
“They’re [team executives] called upon to be championship magicians,” Boras said. “Behind every great magician is the magic Juan.”
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