Yankees fans think Aaron Boone will return as the manager in 2024

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across Major League Baseball. Each week throughout 2023, we’ve send out questions to the most plugged-in New York Yankees fans, and fans across the country. Sign up here to join Reacts, though we will likely be quiet until the spring. Thanks for voting all year long!

The Yankees have already made sure they won’t finish the season with a losing record. Flirting with the .500 mark, however, shows just how disappointing the 2023 campaign has been and with the team now locked into its worst record since 1992, manager Aaron Boone has been heavily criticized recently as a result.

Fans were asked whether they thought Boone would return next season as the Yankees manager. Almost two-thirds of them, 64 percent to be exact, believe he won’t lose his job due to the team’s poor display in 2023. Remember, this question was asking about what the Yankees will do, not what fans would prefer.

After all, Boone is signed through the 2024 season and the Yankees appear willing to give him another chance to right the ship.

Kyle Thele

The Yanks are watching how other American League squads either secured their ticket to the postseason or are still fighting for it in the final weekend. It makes one wonder: do the Yankees have the resources, scouting, negotiating and player-development skills to revamp their roster and return to October next year?

Let’s see what the fans think:

Kyle Thele

Sixty-two percent of Yankees fans think the Bombers will return to the postseason next year. Being left out of the party again would be highly disappointing and at that point with his contract up, it would almost certainly cost Boone his job. The team has missed the playoffs in consecutive seasons just once in the past three decades: 2013-14.

Now, let’s examine MLB-wide results from this week’s voting process. The focus was on the rule changes implemented this season, and judging by what people are saying, they are very much on board with them.

Kyle Thele

A whopping 79 percent of the voters think the pitch clock has made games more fun. It seems that with each passing month, hitters and pitchers have adjusted to playing on a slightly accelerated pace, and fans are loving the dynamic speed of the game.

The shift restrictions were another popular rule change: MLB determined that teams should have two infielders in each side of second base, thus limiting the ability to overpopulate one side of the infield for pull-heavy hitters. Seventy-nine percent of the fans now say they enjoy games more without infield shifts. They think it makes things fair for everyone involved.

Kyle Thele

Fans also voted on whether the “ghost runner” in extra innings should remain in place for the playoffs. Perhaps to Rob Manfred’s chagrin, they would rather it stay exclusive to regular-season play.

Kyle Thele

The majority feels that adding a runner in second base who didn’t really earn his place there could represent an unfair way to decide awfully important games — and possibly the fate of a team’s season itself.