How bad will things get before the Yankees fire Aaron Boone?

If the New York Yankees continue to struggle, manager Aaron Boone may have to go.

In terms of disappointing baseball teams through the first two months of the 2021 MLB season, Aaron Boone’s New York Yankees have to be right up there.

New York will enter play on Tuesday night vs. the lowly Minnesota Twins at 31-29 on the year. While being slightly over .500 does not seem like a big deal, the Yankees are 2-8 in their last 10 games and were just swept at home by the arch rival Boston Red Sox over the weekend. They were also swept by the rebuilding Detroit Tigers not that long ago. They are in fourth place in the AL East.

How much longer will the Steinbrenners be able to tolerate Boone and his underperforming team?

New York Yankees: What will it take for manager Aaron Boone to be fired?

If we want to dissect this, let’s look into it short-term, medium-term and long term. In the short-term, the Yankees cannot go worse than 3-5 in their next eight games. Those include three at Minnesota (24-35), two at the Philadelphia Phillies (28-30) and three at the division rival Toronto Blue Jays (30-27). Going worse than 3-5 gets them below .500 vs. teams they could totally beat.

In the medium-term, if it becomes apparent that the 2021 Yankees are only going to be the at-best, fifth-best team in the American League, it could be time to move on from Boone if the Yankees are not at least a Wild Card team. This is a shortened field, but the Yankees were built to be a top-five team in baseball, not a top-five team in its own division consisting of five teams.

And if we want to go long-term, an early postseason exodus (AL Wild Card or ALDS) or a postseason absence, coupled with a slow April and May out of the gate next year, that will have surely been enough time to put plenty of nails in Boone’s coffin coaching the Yankees. This all comes down to marked improvement out of this club in June, July and maybe a little beyond that.

Ultimately, the Steinbrenners would have grounds to move off Boone if the Yankees do not make the postseason, or if they look terrible in their ALDS series. But if it becomes too painfully obvious of what needs to be done, do not be shocked if the organization makes a move in the next few weeks if the Yankees continue to play awful baseball. His seat is hot and it is only getting hotter.

If the Yankees want to achieve all they had set out for this year and next, Boone may have to go.