Omar Minaya Praises Aaron Boone and Yankees' Roster Construction

Craig Carton (0:00)

Mr. Omar Minaya, good to see you, pal.

Chris McMonigle (0:02)

Good to see you, man. It's always good.

Craig Carton (0:04)

Of course, you got Big Mac right over there, as you know.

Omar Minaya (0:06)

What's going on, big guy?

Craig Carton (0:07)

So much to talk about. You approached the game from an interesting mindset as a former GM, obviously. And a guy that could probably flash the leather every now and then back in the day.

People have taken shots at the roster construction of this Yankee team. They like attacking Brian Casper, as you know. But tonight, we're going to see eight lefties in the lineup for the New York Yankees. A team that for 20 years never had enough lefties in the lineup. It was two right-handed favorites, right?

Omar Minaya (0:38)

Yeah.

Craig Carton (0:39)

Walk me through, and not just because they won last night, we'll get to the science game as well. As a GM, what is special in your opinion about the way this roster was built for these moments?

Omar Minaya (0:50)

Well, this roster was built, of course, with the idea that we were going to be short sometime injury players. We knew that coming into the year, starting pitching, we knew that from a call, was not going to be ready.

Craig Carton (1:04)

Right.

Omar Minaya (1:06)

When you look at the way we built the roster, and I say this week, Brian Cashman, who does an unbelievable job, when you look at his track record way, what he's done, but building a roster. So a lot of people think, well, the payroll is a lot. Well, payroll does not means because you want to win. You really have to do a lot of different things. You have to be able to have talent, of course, and if you have payroll, high payroll, you're going to have talent. But how you build a roster, and to me, out of all the years, what I've seen and what we've done, and I say, Brian has done with his team, is to be able to have a very versatile, flexible roster. When you look at our bench players, when you look at Rosario, when you look at Cavalero, when you look at all these guys, when you look at some of the young guys that came up.

So, yes, construction of a roster really is for me, this year has been, and I've been here for years, probably been the best construction of roster, not only on the field, but also in the clubhouse.

Chris McMonigle (1:58)

So stop there.

Craig Carton (1:59)

So you brought up injuries, all right? Look, people know that I'm friendly with Aaron Boone. Big Mac's building a relationship now with Aaron Boone as well. I think Aaron Boone is a terrific manager, and I think this was a special year for managing this particular team because of the injuries.

I want you to be objective. How would you handicap and grade Aaron Boone as a manager this year?

Omar Minaya (2:23)

Well, I basically, I meet with Boone pretty much before every game. We kind of talk, and I said to Boone just at the end of the year, this is the best year that I've seen Boone manage. And I say manage, yeah. For me, and I've been here four years. Yes, we won the division, I believe, in 2024

23 wasn't, you know, back to an injury year. But then I think this is the best year since I've been here that Boone has managed. And I've told him that. I said, that's a cash also. And I say this because of all the injuries we have. You know, when you look at judge and when you look at Stanton and when you look at some of the starting pitching, Free was hurt, Rodin was hurt. You had, the list goes on and on.

Craig Carton (3:04)

Right, Volpe got sent down.

Omar Minaya (3:06)

Volpe got sent down.

He had to bring in. When you look at what we're playing right now, we're playing young kids in New York, in a playoff situation. And you know, but that's because Boonee gives these guys confident. And I think, you know, some people say he's a player manager. Yeah, that's good. I like player managers. You know, and but this is the best job that I've seen Boonee at least done since I've been with the Yankees.

Craig Carton (3:29)

Do you think people take him for granted?

Omar Minaya (3:31)

You know, the Yankees, if you don't win the World Series, people take you for granted. Yeah, it's a different situation. The Bronx is different, you know.