TORONTO — Heading into a season of great expectations, Brian Cashman feels that he's hired the right manager.
"I have no second-guessing or concerns," Cashman replied Thursday when asked about his first-year skipper Aaron Boone coming out of spring training.
"He's earned the right to be here, he deserves to be in that dugout," Cashman said later. "And the only thing more now he deserves is to get everything that we've got to support him and his staff on the field on a day-in and day-out basis, and he's going to get that."
Boone, who has never managed or coached baseball at any level, emerged during the interview process as the Yankees' choice to replace Joe Girardi.
"You worry in interviews that you could be fooled because, like any job interview, no matter what industry you're talking about you can get fooled in interviews," Cashman said. "There's nothing in that nine-hour process that we had with him and our staff that provided anything that would change how we felt coming out of that interview. He is everything that I thought he could be, and now this will be the next phase of that - the regular season."
Brian Cashman has no concerns regarding first-year skipper Aaron Boone.
(Elsa/Getty Images)Cashman was worried about how the new coaching staff would run spring training due to the loss of respected bench coach Rob Thompson. But everything ran smoothly.
"I don't feel like we missed a beat despite losing a real high-end baseball guy," Cashman said.
Now, it's up to the Yankees to fulfill those great expectations after adding Giancarlo Stanton to a roster that surprised and got within a win of reaching the World Series in 2017.
"I switched it to The Big Engine That Could," Cashman quipped after referring to the Bombers as an underdog earlier in the spring.
Aaron Boone received encouragement from his parents before his first game as Yankees manager.
(Mary Altaffer/AP)The Yankees do enter the season with the seventh-highest payroll in baseball, according to the AP. They are under a mandate by ownership to stay under the $197-million luxury-tax threshold.
"Payroll is never crossing our mind on any of the 162 games we're playing," Cashman said. "Hopefully we can get in the win column today. Obviously we've got a lot of expectations and hope and a ceiling we want to reach, so we'll see."
Cashman's only concern, he said, was the health of his team.
Boone didn't feel too nervous heading into his managerial debut, saying he felt more nervous as a player on Opening Day. His family will be at Monday's home-opener. Boone talked to his parents on the eve of his debut.
"I talked to (my dad) last night," Boone said. "He's pretty low-key and he was last night. He was like, 'good luck, have fun.' And my mom sent me a lot of emojis this morning, a lot of hearts, prayers, the whole bit. So that was nice. So I got a nice balance there. My mom fires off emojis and my dad is just chill."