After having a winter to sit and stew over criticism of the New York Yankees made by a couple of Los Angeles Dodgers players, namely relief pitcher Joe Kelly and outfielder Chris Taylor, in the aftermath of the latter club’s World Series win, Yankees manager Aaron Boone on Tuesday told reporters he hopes his club acts with “more class” than Los Angeles did should they ultimately win a championship in 2025.
“The reality is we didn’t play our best in the series and they won, so they had that right to say whatever,” Boone said. “Hopefully, we’re in that position next year and handle things with a little more class.
“But the reality is it’s a great team, it’s a great organization with a lot of great people that I happen to know and respect, too. So a few people sounding off isn’t necessarily how I would want to draw it up.”
On the strength of a walk-off grand slam off the bat of first baseman Freddie Freeman, the Dodgers won Game 1 of the World Series over the Yankees, then, buoyed by superb pitching, both starting and in relief, and more muscle from Freeman, jumped out to a commanding 3-0 lead in the series.
In Game 5, New York, with its back against the wall, jumped out to a 5-0 lead in an energized Yankee Stadium, seemingly poised to take the a big step towards a historic comeback. But the wheels fell off in the fifth inning, in which the Yankees made two errors and a mental mistake in a defensive meltdown, which allowed the Dodgers to plate five runs, all with two outs.
Los Angeles eventually won the game and with it, the World Series title. After the Dodgers’ triumph, a report emerged stating that the Los Angeles’s plan against the Yankees, whom they viewed as a club of “talent over fundamentals” was to put the ball in play and “make them execute.”
Shortly after that, Kelly, during an episode of the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast, said that New York started “kicking the ball around and playing Yankee defense” in the disastrous fifth inning. Kelly later doubled down, saying the World Series vs. the Yankees was a “mismatch from the get-go.” Kelly’s teammate Taylor, on an episode of Mookie Betts’s podcast, added to the criticisms, saying the Yankees “s— down their leg.”
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman in November told reporters that Kelly’s comments seemed “personal,” and said that they were not reflective of the feelings of the whole Dodgers organization. But Boone, during an appearance WFAN Sports Radio, seemed to take a little dig at the stature of the Dodgers players making criticisms.
Boone, when asked on Tuesday, said he felt the Yankees players took the Dodgers’ comments personally.
“Probably a little bit,” Boone said. “You don’t like hearing that.”
