Aaron Boone became the first manager in MLB history to guide a team to 100 wins in each of his first two seasons as a manager.
He’ll find out Tuesday if that’s enough for him to win AL Manager of the Year.
The other two finalists for the award are Tampa Bay’s Kevin Cash and Minnesota’s Rocco Baldelli.
Cash led the Rays to the playoffs despite a minuscule payroll, and they beat the A’s in the AL wild-card game to reach the ALDS, where they forced the Astros to beat them in five games. And Baldelli, in his first year as Twins manager, led Minnesota to 101 wins and the AL Central crown after the Twins finished six games under .500 in Paul Molitor’s final season.
Joe Torre was the last Yankees manager to win the award following the team’s record-setting performance in 1998.
In addition to getting to 100 wins again, Boone got the Yankees to the playoffs for a second straight season, as they won their first division title since 2012.
While the Yankees had one of the highest payrolls in the game, Boone did have to deal with a roster that had 30 players sent to the injured list. That list included the significant losses of CC Sabathia, Aaron Judge, Aaron Hicks, Gary Sanchez, Didi Gregorius and Luke Voit.
And key contributors like Luis Severino, Giancarlo Stanton, Dellin Betances and Miguel Andujar each missed most of the season.
More than anything else, though, Boone’s 2019 season will likely be remembered for his infamous rant on July 18 during a game against the Rays.
Boone, unhappy with minor league fill-in umpire Brennan Miller’s strike zone, exploded following a called third strike to Brett Gardner.
His phrase, “Our guys are f—ing savages in the box” became a rallying cry for his players and fans, printed on T-shirts and repeated throughout the rest of the season.
The Yankees went out in six games to the Astros in the ALCS, but the voting is done prior to the postseason.
In September, Judge campaigned for Boone to win the award after he finished fifth a year ago.
“In your second year as a manager — anywhere — to lose 30 or 40 percent of your team through injuries at some point and still win over 100 games?” Judge said. “That’s something you don’t see every year. That’s what a manager of the year does.”