Aaron Boone somehow made Yankees' Jazz Chisholm Jr. debacle look even worse

New York Yankees fans got the news they'd been waiting weeks for on Tuesday morning, as manager Aaron Boone confirmed to Talkin' Yanks that he'll be moving Jazz Chisholm Jr. from third base back to second base moving forward.

Not only does this put Chisholm Jr. back at his more natural position of second base — a position where he's consistently excelled throughout his career — but it also comes at the expense of DJ LeMahieu, who simply doesn't have the range to play up the middle at age 36. Chisholm's athleticism gets a chance to shine, while LeMahieu gets bumped to the hot corner, where he's been a solidly above-average defender in recent years. That's a win-win for a Yankees defense that desperately needed it, even before we consider the good this will do for Chisholm's balky shoulder.

So, what's the problem? Well, if the above seems like a natural solution for all involved, that's because it is ... and it has been for weeks. And yet, for weeks, Boone and the Yankees chose to stick their heads in the sand, insisting that everything was fine and that they had the utmost faith in the current arranagement between Chisholm and LeMahieu. That their own fan base finally bullied them into making the right decision is good for the team moving forward, but it sure raises questions about whether this braintrust knows what it's doing.

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Aaron Boone needed Yankees fans to bully him into righting what he knew was wrong

Now that the team has finally caved, there are two possible scenarios here. Either Boone and Co. genuinely believed, in spite of all available evidence, that Chisholm at third and LeMahieu at second gave the Yankees their best chance to win each day, or they knew it was the wrong decision but continued to make it anyway. Neither of those options reflects well on them, to say the least.

Because really, no one should be celebrated for doing what's been obvious to fans and media members (and anyone who's watched even a single Yankees game) for a long time now. This move amounts to a tacit admission from Boone that they were right and he was wrong, but again: Shouldn't it be the manager's job to determine how to best use his players and navigate all the personalities involved? If Boone now thinks that Chisholm is best utilized at second base, why didn't he think that before? And if he did think that before, why didn't he make it happen?

Maybe this seems like finding a reason to complain amid what is, objectively, good news. But the infield situation has been a sore spot dating back to the winter, when Brian Cashman stood idly by and let a looming crisis carry over to Opening Day and beyond. There were already reasons to be skeptical of how the Yankees evaluated their own players, and this move just pours more fuel onto that fire — correct decision or not.