Yankees icon Paul O’Neill shares one way Aaron Boone is different than Joe Torre

Regardless of what upset New York Yankees fans have posted on social media about team senior vice president/general manager Brian Cashman and manager Aaron Boone following the club's American League Divisional Series sweep at the hands of the Tampa Bay Rays, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner is widely expected to retain both Cashman and Boone. 

Long before Boone's managerial career began, he played under Yankees legend and four-time World Series champion Joe Torre. During a recent chat with Bob Klapisch of NJ Advance Media, Yankees icon and current YES Network analyst Paul O'Neill suggested Boone should be more like Torre in one way. 

Is Aaron Boone too friendly with Yankees players?

"The part of the game that I miss is when managers knew their players. They knew who they could trust in certain situations," O’Neill explained. "You don’t have robots out there. You have to understand people. But with all the information and analytics, it seems like managers and players are more like best friends. Believe me, I never had more fun in my life than being around Joe Torre and (former bench coach) Don Zimmer. But when the game started, 'I’m not your friend anymore. You’re above me. I’m the player. You’re the manager.'"

Boone's relationships with Yankees players such as team captain Aaron Judge have truly only come into question because the skipper failed to guide the club to a single World Series title from 2018 through this fall. After the Rays unceremoniously bounced the Yankees from the playoffs, Judge directly said that Boone is "our manager" and is "running this ship." Other Yankees players also publicly backed Boone following the club's final loss of the postseason. 

Boone is signed through the 2027 campaign, and Cashman is expected to ink a new deal with the Yankees this fall. Per Adam Zagoria of NJ Advance Media, ESPN's Buster Olney recently reported that he believes both Boone and Cashman will stay put. 

Can Yankees players show more "intensity" while playing under Aaron Boone? 

"It’s a respect thing, and I think that’s kind of lost," O’Neill added during his comments. "Today, the manager might as well sit on the bench and have a conversation with everybody. That’s kind of weird to me. Your ability to be in the lineup is in the manager’s hands. That’s his decision, not yours. And if you don’t show the intensity or the confidence, he can take that right away from you. I don’t think that’s around today."

The lockout that is on track to begin once the collective bargaining agreement expires on Dec. 1 has been mentioned as a reason Steinbrenner will likely run it back with Boone for another season. As much as O’Neill may feel the Yankees could benefit from an old-school approach, there's no reason to believe Boone will change how he interacts with his players.