AL DIVISION SERIES: YANKEES VS RAYS

October 3, 2026

Aaron Boone

Tropicana Field

New York Yankees

Pregame 1 Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with Aaron.

Q. Aaron, I know you just spoke to the Beat about the decision to not go with Judge on this ALDS roster. Can you walk us through the process on how you ultimately came to that decision?

AARON BOONE: Yeah. First of all, I think he's made really good progress here over the last couple weeks, has worked incredibly hard to be an option and wanted to be on the roster.

I sat with him and Mike Schuck in my office after the workout last night, and we kind of talked through it all and had good conversations and basically left there, and I said I was going to sit on it for an hour or so and just think about it and make a decision.

Ultimately, I obviously decided keeping him off was the best thing. Again, I feel like he's getting close, but I feel like for us to get a version of Aaron back and to win a World Series, I feel like this week's important for him to continue to work towards getting back.

He just started running. He's hit now a couple of days. So I think another several days of doing that and building some endurance, I think, is important. Understanding entirely that we're guaranteed nothing. We don't play well, next week we're home and we don't get it.

But I feel like for us to get a good version of Aaron, this was the right thing to do.

Q. Is there a scenario where he would be available later in this series, or in your mind he is completely out for this entire series?

AARON BOONE: Well, you can't just put him on unless there's an injury. If there, God forbid, was an injury in the middle, later part of the series and it was closer, cross that bridge if you got there.

But you can't just put him on at some point.

Q. Aaron, this place could be a tough place to play, especially if you're not familiar with it. You have a couple young guys in that lineup that have never played here before. What are some of the challenges you talked to them about yesterday in trying to get used to this place quickly?

AARON BOONE: Obviously, for those guys who haven't experienced it, getting out. We did pop-ups to get their eyes on what the ball looks like on the roof.

There's handful of fields that you do play on with turf now. So it's not too extreme or overwhelming for these guys. But I think it's really good to get out there and do your defensive work and move around and see how the ball bounces and all those kind of things.

So they obviously play great here at home, and they're built for this place. So, important we take care of the ball and get the outs that should be outs. If we do that, feel like we have a good chance.

Q. Aaron, how much did you consider having -- carrying Judge and maybe just not using him the first couple games and having him go if he's ready in Game 3, the possibility of him being available later in the series?

AARON BOONE: I guess we considered that. Yeah, I mean, that was the consideration. Like, I wouldn't have played him, but it would have been more in that Giancarlo role where he's pinch-hitting.

I think he's ready to go up and take an at-bat. At what level, he's only had a couple days of hitting, but I feel like that part is there.

But in the end, I just felt like the best chance for us to get, again, a good version of Aaron was another five, six, seven days of truly building up his running, building up the endurance, getting at-bats, taking BP every day. Those kind of things.

So, yeah, we considered it all.

Q. Aaron, you always talk about checking the boxes. What are the most important boxes Aaron needs to check? And I want to ask you about his running. It's more than just running. It's, like, making quick stops and when you're running the bases and all that. Is that what you're looking for?

AARON BOONE: Yeah, but it's more about the endurance, more about the going out there and playing a baseball game for three hours.

I mean, he hasn't done anything really for a couple weeks in that regard. That's the challenge of all this. I feel like he could go out there and play with the governor on and kind of get through, but it's, like, ultimately, the few hours of -- with adrenaline and playoffs and 48 thou -- all that, like, that's a lot.

So that's why I feel like these days are important in kind of building as much endurance as you can. It's one thing to prove one day you can go run. It's another thing now to go do it tomorrow and the next day and do it for three hours.

It's like if you're running a marathon and you were hurt and now you're healthy, well, I'm healthy, I can run now. But you've got to go run a marathon. That takes building. In an extreme -- that's what Spring Training, that's why they play three and four and five innings, and you build them up.

We're not going to have that luxury, obviously. But we have to have some kind of safeguards in there and build in there.

Q. With how the Wild Card went, how confident is this group right now with or without Aaron on the roster?

AARON BOONE: Yeah, I think we're a confident team. I think we know that if we play well, we can beat anyone. We understand how good the Rays are and that we're playing this game here tonight in Game 1 because they've been the best team in the American League. They've earned that. So we know we've got to play well.

But we also have a lot of confidence that if we do play well, we can win and we can beat anyone and, hopefully, we can go out and prove that.

Q. Aaron, you have Ryan Weathers on the roster as expected. Just how do you anticipate using him and do you see him going more than one inning?

AARON BOONE: I don't know. We'll see about that. I'm excited to get him back. Again, as you guys know, going into the Wild Card series, he had thrown one live and then I had him throw another one the day before the Wild Card series.

So I think, physically, he was ready to be on, but I felt like that second live was important. He's since had a bullpen. He's been throwing. He looks healthy. He feels healthy. I feel like he's going to be really important for us moving forward.

But similar, you know, to Aaron. In some ways, he might have been ready to go on the roster on some level, but I feel like it would have been a more guarded, protected Ryan and I feel like he's ready to go now and to play a real role for us.

Q. With Giancarlo, is he still a pinch-hit option only this series?

AARON BOONE: Yeah.

THE MODERATOR: Aaron, thank you so much. Appreciate it.