Aaron Bleeping Boone. The Red Sox dubbed him that after his game 7 walkoff in the ’03 ALCS. 15 years later, Boone is largely responsible for Boston moving onto the ALCS.

The former infielder was wildly successful during his rookie campaign as the Yankee manager. New York won 100 games in the regular season and won the AL Wildcard game to set up the ALDS matchup with the Red Sox.

However, if this series showed anything, it’s that Boone is not experienced enough to make the necessary moves to win in the postseason yet. His mishandling of the starting pitching, questionable insertion of relief pitchers and overall unwillingness to trust his instincts indicate Boone has a lot to learn before he is going to be the manager to take this team to a World Series.

This is not say the players do not deserve some blame. Luis Severino and C.C. Sabathia lacked control in their game 3 and game 4 starts. Lance Lynn struggled to find a rhythm coming on in relief for Severino in game 3. Andrew McCutcheon and Giancarlo Stanton might have well as been spectators for how infrequently they managed get on base.

The issue I have with Boone in all of this was he should never have been in charge this season. The Yankees should never have let Joe Girardi leave given the roster they had heading into the 2018 season. New York did not have Stanton on the roster when they hired Boone to be the manager, as the former NL MVP joined the team via trade a week later. Still, the mentality building a team to win this season. For me, that has to include the manager.

I know things were rocky between the front office and Girardi by the end of last season. However, Girardi was a proven winner. He had gotten the Yanks to the postseason two of the previous three years with admittedly much less talented teams than what New York put together this season. He wasn’t perfect, seeing as the Yankees went five years without winning playoff game before last year. However, he won a World Series in 2009 and had plenty of postseason experience. Girardi has the 13th most wins by a manager in postseason history. He is now interviewing to be the next Texas Rangers manager.

Down the line, Boone would have been a great fit for the Yankees. He is a former Yankee himself who understands the winning culture necessary to be great in the major leagues. He had no experience though whatsoever as a manager or even a coach in baseball.

That was on full display as he left Severino in during game 3 and elected to replace him with Lynn of all the options he had in his bullpen. He waited too long to turn to his bullpen in game 4 as well. The media has been feasting on this idea of Boone relying too heavily on analytics. What else did you want him to rely on? Prior experience? He didn’t have any of that. Based on how close games 1 and 4 were for the Yankees, I truly believe that Joe Girardi would have found a way to win this series for New York. There is also no chance the Yanks lose 16-1 at Yankee Stadium is it was Girardi sitting on the bench.

Clearly, the relationship between Girardi and the Yankee front office didn’t like each other. The thing is, you don’t have to like each other to win. The New England Patriots continue to prove that year in and year out. It was a massive failure by the Yankee front office to not bring Joe Girardi back to New York. The Yankees went all in on their roster but failed to go all in on their manager.

It is hard to tell if the Yankees will be this talented again next year as well. Brett Gardner (team option), C.C. Sabathia, Andrew McCutcheon, Neil Walker, Adeiny Hechavarria, J.A. Happ, David Robertson, Zach Britton and Lynn are all free agents now. Sonny Gray, Dellin Betances, Didi Gregorius and Aaron Hicks are all entering their final year of arbitration as well. Not to mention, Jacoby Ellsbury is still making $21 million a year through 2020. It is unlikely New York brings back all of that same talent for next season. This is not the same Yankee team anymore who just tries to throw money at its problems in hopes they solve them. New York has a lot of tough decisions to make regarding key players this offseason.

Obviously, it is a lot easier for me to sit here after the fact and rip the Yankees for hiring Boone. I realized early on in the season that his lack of experience was going to be an issue for the Yankees and with a true championship contender, hiring a rookie manager seemed like an astronomically high risk.

A lot of credit has to go to the Red Sox, who are easily one of the best teams in the history of the sport. However, the blame has to rest with Boone. He was not prepared to manage at that kind of level and clearly had no idea how to manage in the postseason. The truth is, he likely won’t make those mistakes again. He will be a better manager in the future and has shown a lot of potential. The bottom line is that he was not the right fit for the Yankees this season.