For four seasons, no one was closer to Yankees manager Aaron Boone. As the Yankees’ bench coach, Carlos Mendoza was always at Boone’s side, helping him make tough decisions.
They developed a close friendship that has survived Mendoza’s move across town to become the manager of the rival New York Mets. Well, it has survived the first year. After the Mets beat out the Yankees for top free-agent slugger Juan Soto this offseason, Boone admitted that Mendoza has been cautious about bringing up that subject. “No, no, so Mendy’s been very, very delicate with that,” Boone said on WFAN. “Like we actually had dinner – him and his wife and mine and my wife in the city this past weekend.” Still, Mendoza couldn’t help himself at the annual BBWAA awards dinner. “We sat next to each other on the dais at the writer’s dinner. The yearbook for the writer’s dinner – we’re kind of thumbing through it, about halfway through – and he turns it over on the back, and it’s Soto and all the Mets stuff, and he just kind of slides it over to me like … I’m like, ‘C’mon, man!’Boone was laughing as he told the story. The Mets outbid the Yankees by $5 million. They gave Soto a record 15-year, $765 million deal to defect from the Bronx, where he helped the Yankees to their first World Series appearance since 2009. Boone also confirmed reports that Soto was not in touch with his former Yankee colleagues after the season. Outfielder Aaron Judge had said he had not talked with the young outfielder after the season, and Boone said his contact was limited. “Not a lot after we met with him,” Boone said. “So when we went to California to meet with them, that was my big time to really make sure he understood how I felt, how we felt, and my expectations and vision of him being there moving forward.”
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