The rest of the story: Aaron Boone defends penchant for giving Yankees a break

Aaron Boone has a message for Yankees fans who are tired of his penchant for resting his star players when the team is in such dire need of offense: 

Give me a break! 

On an appearance on “The Michael Kay Show” on ESPN New York 98.7-FM before Friday’s series opener against Cleveland at the Stadium, Boone appeared to take umbrage at the suggestion that he is giving his players too many days off to start the season. 

Kay read Boone a Twitter question from listener Sebastian H., who wrote: “Boone says guys need to get into routine beginning a season. How do they get into routine when the lineup changes every day?” 

After a few seconds of a dramatic pause, Boone answered. And he didn’t hold back. 

“You know how I feel about that,” he said. “[Aaron] Judge. [Anthony] Rizzo. [Giancarlo] Stanton. [Josh] Donaldson. [Joey] Gallo. They’ve all basically hit [in] the same spot. Like, stop with that. Honestly.” 

Kay interjected that he thought Sebastian H. was talking about resting guys, not Boone’s ever-changing batting order. (Sebastian H. later confirmed this on Twitter. What a time we live in now.) 

Boone did not hold back on defending his “process” here, either. 

“These guys have [had] one or two games off,” he said. “Michael and Sebastian H., we had a three-week spring training. April is a month when guys get hurt, typically, in our game. To go from playing two and three games in a row in spring training where you’re playing six, seven and eight innings . . . to going out and playing 12 games in a row, nine games in a row of three-hour, three-and-a-half-hour, travel now mixed in. That’s when people get hurt, especially when you have some guys in our case that are more veteran players that have had an [injury] history. I’m going to build ‘em up and I don’t think there’s been anything that’s affected their rhythm. These guys have played pretty much every day. The regular that’s sat the most has two days, maybe a third day, in 15 days? That’s just reaching for something, man.” 

Boone didn’t bring it up, but he also has nine players for eight lineup spots (excluding catcher). So assuming everyone is healthy, one starting player has to sit every game. 

On Friday, it was Aaron Hicks, who was not in the lineup against Cleveland righthander Eli Morgan. 

“Just matchups and tomorrow we have a day game,” Boone said on “TMKS.” “Lefthanded pitcher tomorrow. So I’m going to want him in there [tomorrow], for sure. Aaron’s one of those guys — and he’s going well and [is] frustrated with me, I think, that he’s not in there today — but he’s also another guy that didn’t play [much] last year and we’ve got to be smart about how we build him up, too.”

 

The Yankees opened the season with games on 10 consecutive days before a day off in Detroit on Monday. They have another scheduled day off on Monday. 

Hicks, who went into the night batting .270, could have started over Gallo, who was batting .135. 

But Boone said he’s looking at the big picture, wanting his best players to appear in the majority of games and still be fresh when October rolls around. 

“We have a handful of guys that are in their 30s that have had some injury history,” Boone said. “My goal is to have them, to varying degrees, play 130, 140, 150 games.” 

For the record, in the Yankees’ first 14 games including Friday, of the players Boone mentioned, Donaldson and Gallo have started at four different lineup positions, Rizzo has started at three and Judge and Stanton have started at two apiece. 

The non-catcher regulars with the fewest games started (including Friday) are Hicks, Gallo and Gleyber Torres, all of whom have been in the lineup 11 times. 

By Anthony Rieber

anthony.rieber@newsday.comAnthonyRieber

Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.