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During a press conference on Wednesday, New York Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner addressed various subjects, including the choice to retain Aaron Boone as manager. Despite the team's another postseason exit, Steinbrenner does not hold Boone accountable. Instead, he directed the blame toward the players.
"I thought Boone managed a good season, especially with the pitching staff," Steinbrenner said, as reported by SNY Yankees. "You know, we had a lot of additions and subtractions in the rotation throughout the course of the season. Our bullpen was absolutely exhausted by the end of the season. He got through all that and he got us to the playoffs, and the bottom-line is the players didn't live up to their end of the bargain in the playoffs. So I thought he had a good season. That's my take on it."
If the players are at fault, how can the Yankees improve the roster? Steinbrenner was also questioned about potential changes the team might consider, via SNY Yankees. "I believe we absolutely had a team that was capable of winning a championship," Steinbrenner stated. "Now I was disappointed quite frankly with the offense throughout the course of the year as a whole, even though there were some bright spots. They were inconsistent for long periods of time. That made it difficult to catch the Rays and win the division. As we all know, winning the division is a big deal in this playoff format. That is certainly one part of the organization and the team that I'm going to be looking at from top to bottom."
Steinbrenner continued by commending the pitching rotation. The offense is clearly where the Yankees may end up seeing the most change. It should be a fairly similar starting rotation next year. Regardless of what changes end up being made to the roster, Boone is indeed set to return for at least one more season.
Originally reported by yahoo.