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New York Daily News | Peter Botte: The Yankees are officially out of the running for Shohei Ohtani. His representatives indicated to Brian Cashman that Ohtani’s preference is the West Coast with an extra advantage possibly given to smaller market teams. The Red Sox, Twins, Mets, and Athletics have also been informed they’re out of the running. The Giants, Mariners, Padres, and both LA teams are said to be in the running. This offseason got boring really fast but at least he’s not going to Boston.
New York Post | Ken Davidoff: In case you haven’t heard by now, the Yankees have decided to go with Aaron Boone as their next manager. Boone had a decent major league career, highlighted by one huge hit, and then immediately joined the broadcast booth at ESPN. He’s had no previous experience as a coach or manager, so he reached out to Buck Martinez, who followed a similar path when he became the Blue Jays’ manager in 2001, for advice. Hopefully Boone’s run is more successful than Martinez’s.
New York Post | Joel Sherman: If Boone is reaching out for advice, he might consider reaching out to A.J. Hinch, Brad Ausmus, or Craig Counsell. The three of them also took managerial gigs without any previous manager or coaching experience. Joel Sherman reached out to them to see if they could offer any insight to what Boone may not see coming but should expect about the job.
MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: Lost in the shuffle of the manager news and Ohtani news over the weekend was that the Yankees did make some roster decisions as well. The Yankees have eight players who are all arbitration eligible and have tendered contracts to all of them, including Austin Romine. Romine is joined by Dellin Betances, Sonny Gray, Didi Gregorius, Aaron Hicks, Tommy Kahnle, Chasen Shreve and Adam Warren.
FanRag Sports | Gary Phillips: Hello all, I am here to break some news to you. Aaron Judge is good. You heard it here first. Judge hit just .179 in during his debut in 2016 and used that specific number to motivate him to being the best rookie and one of the best players in 2017. His 2017 wasn’t perfect though, but the good thing about Judge is that he’s just getting started and will do what he can to improve.