NEW YORK -- When the Yankees introduced Aaron Boone in December 2017, Brian Cashman said the franchise would be “betting on the ceiling” of a rookie manager to leap from the broadcast booth to the dugout, expecting their partnership to translate into a World Series championship.
It hasn’t happened yet, but Cashman and Boone are receiving another chance to deliver.
Cashman has agreed in principle to a new contract that will keep him in his current role as the club’s senior vice president and general manager, he said on Wednesday, while Boone is set to return for a 10th season at the helm.
“We just have to bang out some minor stuff on the back end,” Cashman said on Wednesday, sitting alongside managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner for a Zoom news conference. “But yeah, we’re locked and loaded.”
The pact will maintain Cashman’s title as the game’s longest-tenured GM ahead of his 30th season in the role. Though Steinbrenner said he was disappointed by the Yankees’ ouster at the hands of the Rays in the American League Division Series after a 93-win regular season, he declined to point fingers at Cashman or Boone.
Instead, Steinbrenner identified underperforming position players as the main cause of the early exit.
"Cash is great every season,” Steinbrenner said. “The team that we rolled out of Spring Training with was as good as any in baseball, in my opinion. We had a lot of bumps and bruises along the way, but the team was fantastic, and it was a world championship-caliber team.”
The Yankees have won four World Series championships with Cashman in his current position -- three with Joe Torre as manager from 1998-2000, and one with Joe Girardi as manager in 2009.
Despite a 2024 pennant and a .583 regular-season winning percentage (790-565), Boone’s Yankees still haven't gotten over the October hump.
“I thought Boone managed a good season, especially with the pitching staff,” Steinbrenner said. “Our bullpen was absolutely exhausted by the end of the season. He got through all that, and he got us to the playoffs. The bottom line is, the players didn't live up to their end of the bargain in the playoffs.”
Here are five takeaways from Wednesday’s news conference, conducted with Cashman and Steinbrenner in Tampa, Fla., and Boone at Yankee Stadium:
1. Is it still ‘World Series or bust?’
The Yankees followed their 2024 World Series loss to the Dodgers with two remarkably similar results, winning 94 and 93 regular-season games in 2025 and ’26, then bowing out to a division rival in the ALDS -- the Blue Jays and Rays, respectively.
With one championship to show for the past quarter-century, Steinbrenner was asked whether his father’s stated mantra of “World Series or bust” remains realistic, or if those expectations must be adjusted.
“No, not at all,” Steinbrenner replied. “That's absolutely what we expect. That is our mission. That is our goal. Yes, we failed at the goal this year, but that is always our goal, which is why we put so much effort and resources into the roster every offseason to field a team that can accomplish that. And I certainly believe we had that team this year. It just didn't pan out.”
2. Aaron Judge’s ‘all-in’ push
Shortly after the ALDS loss, captain Aaron Judge urged the front office to go “all-in” this winter, saying, “That’s why I signed back here to play with the Yankees, to fight for a championship every single year, to go all in. That’s what I do every offseason, get ready to give this team and this city everything I’ve got. So I expect them to do the same.”
Saying he “wasn’t bothered by [the comments] at all,” Steinbrenner said he and Judge spoke on Tuesday.
“Aaron and I had a great conversation yesterday over a number of subjects, as we always do,” Steinbrenner said. “We've got some decisions that need to be made right after the World Series is over, essentially, and then some we have more time on. And he's going to be a part of all that.”
Steinbrenner said he believes the organization has already gone all-in, pointing to the January move to re-sign Cody Bellinger to a six-year, $162.5 million contract.
“We got to a point later in the offseason where we still felt we weren’t good enough, so we went out and signed Bellinger to a huge contract,” Steinbrenner said. “I’m glad we did. He’s a good player. So I definitely think we went all-in this season.”
3. Clubhouse accountability
Several former players have spoken about the in-house culture since the end of the ALDS, most prominently Hall of Famer CC Sabathia, who opined that “there is nobody in there keeping that standard” established by previous generations. Once Brett Gardner left in 2021, Sabathia said, “It’s been a wrap.”
Cashman said he spoke with several of those people and described the conversations as “diplomatic and professional.” He added: “I can share that we both agreed when we hung up, none of that commentary is why we lost.”
“Winning is extremely hard,” Cashman said. “I think those who have a strong voice and a strong opinion even can reflect on that too, because there's bites at the apple, but there's only one champion on a year-in and year-out basis. Even most people with a voice have punched through maybe one time only. So I'd say that the dialogue is good.”
4. Boone’s status and coaches
With Boone entering his final season of a three-year extension, Steinbrenner said the front office “had a week-long conversation” about Boone to determine, “Was he part of the problem this year?”
The outcome, according to Steinbrenner: “I don’t believe he was.”
“The question I had to analyze was, ‘Did he manage the team well this season?’ Steinbrenner said. “I think the answer is yes. Now, when you look at the subpar season that certainly ended in an unacceptable way, is he really responsible? I'm not going to make a change just to make a change.”
Boone said entering the season with an expiring deal “doesn’t bother me at all.”
Steinbrenner said he would look at the coaching staff, and that he's “definitely focused on the offense and hitting,” noting, “It was certainly a significant part of why we didn’t achieve what we wanted to.” Asked about hitting coach James Rowson, Boone said he has “been really impressed with the culture that he’s created.”
5. Health updates
Cashman said Judge is scheduled for a follow-up visit with Dr. Gregory Pearl, the Texas-based specialist he has been consulting about the right rib fracture that cost him most of the 2026 season. Judge’s right calf strain is also continuing to heal.
“We feel like we're in a good place,” Cashman said. “He can take advantage of the rest of the winter and be ready to go when Spring Training starts.”
Boone said no surgical procedures are scheduled for other members of the roster. That includes left-hander Max Fried, who dealt with a lingering left elbow bone bruise for most of the season. Boone said Fried was recently re-imaged.
“We think he’s in a good spot,” Boone said. “The ligament is in a good place.”