MLB WORLD SERIES: YANKEES VS DODGERS

October 30, 2024

Aaron Boone

Yankee Stadium

New York Yankees

Pregame 5 Press Conference

Q. This is just a general bullpen question for you. When did this whole thing about high leverage relievers and low leverage relievers start? I remember the day when everybody in the bullpen could just about do everything. Now, I know that closers have a different temperament, you have to be able to want to go in the ninth inning. But why isn't everybody able to do everything in the bullpen these days?

AARON BOONE: I mean, that's sports. That's what separates great from good, good from average, average from not here. That's life. We're competing in the sports, and that's how you differentiate between what a great player is. I mean, that's the best I can say it, I guess.

Q. Isn't there something about average players being able to do multiple jobs rather than one specific job or you rely on one specific guy to do one thing and another?

AARON BOONE: Can you give me an example of what you're talking about?

Q. Well, like last night is a good example. The Dodgers used what they called their low leverage relievers in the game last night, and their higher leverage relievers are now rested to pitch today, and they used a few of those to get out of Game 2 behind Buehler. That's basically what I'm talking about.

AARON BOONE: I don't know. Look, you're going to find yourself in situations where a, quote/unquote, low leverage guy is in a big moment, maybe the biggest moment of the season. At the end of the day, your players, relievers, coaches are trying to get guys to be the best they can possibly be whatever situation they're in. That's the best I can say it, I guess.

Q. Question about Aaron Judge. Swing decisions and the chase and stuff like that seems like it's improved over the past maybe two games, say. Just wondering what you've seen in that trajectory toward him starting to get that back, and how much better he is than he was a few games before that, how far he has to go. Like where he's at in terms of getting that timing. Seems better to the naked eye a little bit.

AARON BOONE: I thought he had good at-bats last night. Hopefully that carries into today. With Aaron, it's always one pitch away from getting as hot as anyone's ever seen.

I thought he had good at-bats last night, and hopefully that carries into today.

Q. He's taking pitches that maybe he was offering at earlier in the series, you think?

AARON BOONE: Yeah, I thought he did a good job of that last night. I thought he got a lot of good swings off. I thought he controlled the zone. Again, a lot of times that's mechanical too. That's getting yourself in -- again, everyone's a little bit different how they get there. But you get into strong positions, and usually that's when you're able to make your best swing decisions.

Q. What impressed you the most about Gerrit's start in Game 1?

AARON BOONE: I thought he made some really good adjustments. I think he does a really good job in game of knowing what's working for him, knowing how to make adjustments on the fly. I thought he was really pitch efficient.

For the most part, he gained count leverage throughout the night, which is always really important, I guess, but especially against this Dodger team. You've got to go into the strike zone, and you've got to get ahead of these guys because they feast as much as anyone when they get that count leverage or get ahead in the count. So I thought he did a good job with all that.

Q. Aaron, not to divulge your pitching plans obviously, but if you wanted to let Gerrit go a little bit longer tonight in maybe his last start of the year, is that an option? Or is it like, hey, six good innings or whatever and then the bullpen?

AARON BOONE: No, it's always the game will tell you. He's always capable of going deep into the game, and we'll see how he's doing tonight and how it's going. Hopefully he does get us deep into the game.

Q. When you think about what the Yankees have already done this year, what you want to continue to do in the coming seasons, how significant is Carlos Rodón's overall body of work and his bounce back and his really stabilizing after a rough debut here?

AARON BOONE: Huge, super proud of him. Last season was rough. No bones about it. Like he got off to a rough start with kind of a minor injury out of camp, and then as he's coming back, another little setback, another kind of minor injury. But it caused him to miss at least two, three months of the season.

So now all of a sudden, you're this big signing and you're trying to find your way on a new team, new town, and it was just very middling in the results game the second half of the season.

To his credit, to say he got after it this winter in every regard -- like I need to be better at pitching, I need to be connected with strength and conditioning, our trainers, the pitching group, and make sure I'm in the best possible position coming into Spring Training -- he did that. I feel like he developed a really good routine in Spring Training.

The biggest thing I wanted him going into this year was like -- because everything was going to be all eyes on, right? His first Spring Training start, oh, what's this look like? His first start in the regular season.

My focus, what I wanted his biggest focus to be was do everything to get yourself ready to go to the post every day. I want you to take the ball 30 times this year, boom, he's done that.

But he's done that because he's had his blinders on. He's developed a great routine, a great work ethic, has really gotten to know and trust who he can work with, where he can find things here.

So obviously he had a really good year. What did he win, 16 games or whatever. Super consistent for us. Had some bumps along the way, but those bumps didn't derail him because it was about the process. It's about the five, six days, I'm just chopping wood every day here to get ready for the next start. Make the adjustments I need to do, get my work in. But that's all Carlos.

It's not easy to play here sometimes, especially when you come in as a big signing and you struggle and you fail a little bit and you fall on your face. Like he picked himself up, and that's credit to him. It's because of the work he put in to get himself in this position.

Q. Watching a season's worth of Soto's at-bats, what did you grow to appreciate? And then maybe apply that to meeting the moment in the postseason.

AARON BOONE: The combination of the battle that ensues but like a theatrical element to it too. You don't want to miss his ABs. I can't tell you how many at-bats there were this year like 0-2 and you're just like, all right, this is -- four or five more pitches and then going to end with something good.

He's just so good at his craft. Then his flair for the dramatic and meeting the moment. I'll go back to Spring Training too, first game, all eyes on Juan Soto. What's this going to look like? It's just a Spring Training game, but it was a big deal. Boom, homer right away. Okay.

Go to Houston, Opening Day, boom, big hit after big hit, big throw out at the plate.

He's had so many here's the big spot moments throughout the year, obviously in Cleveland in the clincher. He definitely has that flair for the dramatic. He has a lot of confidence in those situations because obviously he's really good, but his work and his process and his discipline is outstanding.

Q. What have you thought of overall the year Verdugo has had and especially what he's done for you in the playoffs?

AARON BOONE: Overall, the defense has been outstanding. Like we thought it was going to be good. I think it was better than we expected even. Especially in our left field, how important that is. He's been great from day one till now.

Offensively overall, a little bit of a down year for him. Really, I thought, got off to a really good start the first couple of months, a lot of big hits, a lot of big plays. Then kind of struggled frankly in the second half.

To the point of lost some playing time at the end of the year and kind of auditioning some certain things. But I think at the end of the day, he's a really good hitter. He's kind of a born hitter. On balance we'll look at this year and look at the number, a little bit of a down year by his standards. This guy can hit.

It's baseball. Sometimes great, good, mediocre, you're going to struggle. Every year is a little bit different. He had a stretch where he struggled a little bit, but he can hit. I feel like he's had a lot of big at-bats for us here in the postseason and continued the outstanding defense.

Q. Last night when you scored the five runs in the eighth inning, how advantageous was that to be able to take Luke Weaver out of that game to give some more votes tonight?

AARON BOONE: Very, because he was going back out there with probably a three, four-run lead, which maybe takes him out of today potentially or at least compromising him a little bit.

Hopefully that's one of those innings that hopefully serves us well, but I think it was important.

Q. Can he do this regular season next year too, like multiple innings, almost like old-school days with Goose Gossage?

AARON BOONE: I think he's capable of it, but it's just tough to say. A lot of that is dependent on the makeup of your team and bullpen and time and place in the season, like what makes more sense. Is it to have him two out of three days to be able to close in one-inning scenarios? There's different times a year, one plus.

But I think his command and control allow him to be efficient enough to where his athleticism allows him to be efficient enough to where I think there's -- a lot of times, for example, this year he's gone four outs or five outs, whatever it may be, and typically he's very pitch efficient. So it lends itself to being able to do that a little bit.

Q. You spoke a little bit to the energy of the crowd last night. Upon further reflection, how impactful was that particularly after Volpe, and how much carryover do you think going into today and having sort of a different energy than maybe Monday?

AARON BOONE: Yeah, I think the way I said it was they were waiting for 48 hours to erupt. Obviously they didn't get much going in Game 3 and kind of fell behind and didn't push anything across until Dugy's homer in the ninth.

I felt like the homer definitely was this explosion of emotion that was bottled up for the last 48 hours ready to go, and I think it definitely -- it was awesome. I mean, I thought it was great. Hopefully it played a factor in us continuing to put together a really good game, and hopefully it's something that kind of carries over tonight.

Q. I'd like to know your opinion about that incident that happened last night between Mookie Betts and the Yankees fans, if you have one.

AARON BOONE: Yeah, not good. There's no place for that. It's as simple as that. Like come here, cheer, root for your team, whatever. No place for that. Should never have hands on anyone. Like just not okay.