Aaron Boone: Yankees Would Have 'More Class' Than Dodgers If They Win World Series
It's safe to say New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone wasn't thrilled with comments from some members of the Los Angeles Dodgers after the National League West club defeated his team in the 2024 World Series.
"The reality is we didn't play our best in the series and they won, so they had that right to say whatever," Boone said Tuesday, per ESPN's Jeff Passan. "Hopefully, we're in that position next year and handle things with a little more class. But the reality is it's a great team, it's a great organization with a lot of great people that I happen to know and respect, too. So a few people sounding off isn't necessarily how I would want to draw it up."
Passan noted utilityman Chris Taylor and former reliever Joe Kelly criticized the Yankees' fielding and baserunning in the aftermath of the Fall Classic with the latter saying New York's issues in those areas were "well-known" on his podcast and the former saying the American League East team "s--t down their leg" on teammate Mookie Betts' podcast.
Boone made it clear that most of the Dodgers didn't say anything like that about the Yankees but added, "sometimes you're coming off ... winning the world championship and some guys are more inclined to spout off and be a little more colorful than others—and that's their right. They won. And again, hopefully we're in that position and do things a little better."
Frankly, New York will likely get a rematch with the Dodgers if it reaches the World Series.
Los Angeles is loaded once again with Shohei Ohtani, Betts, Freddie Freeman, Blake Snell, Rōki Sasaki, Tyler Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, among others, and is expected to be the best team in the league.
The Yankees might not be equal to the Dodgers in terms of expectations, but they are surely close after adding Max Fried, Paul Goldschmidt, Cody Bellinger and Devin Williams this offseason.
It will be a team-wide effort to make up for the loss of Juan Soto, but adding multiple quality players will help.
New York is the historical powerhouse of the sport, but it hasn't won the World Series since 2009 and reached the Fall Classic for the first time in 15 years during the 2024 campaign. Now it is tasked with making it back and actually prevailing this time.
If it does, Boone expects his team to avoid criticizing the competition during the ensuing celebration.
