AL DIVISION SERIES: YANKEES VS RAYS

October 4, 2026

Aaron Boone

Tropicana Field

New York Yankees

Workout Day Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Aaron, good morning.

Q. Aaron, Rays announced Freddy Peralta as the starter tomorrow. What's the challenge there? What do you guys see as the difference in him since he's been with the Rays?

AARON BOONE: Well, I mean, he's been really good for a couple of years. So, you know, a couple of months of where maybe he underperformed what he's been the last couple years. This guy's been really good and one of the coveted guys. I think even going in the off season when it seemed like he was available.

Obviously, coming here to the Rays, down here at the Trop, really accentuates or takes advantage of good four-seam fastball qualities, which he certainly has. They've done a good job of evolving his mix a little bit. Obviously, using the change-up a good bit, a good pitch for him.

So we've got a little bit of familiarity. We've seen him a couple times the last couple years. Some of our guys have experience against him, so hopefully that serves us well. But we've got to go out and obviously put some pressure on them and hopefully support Cam in a good way.

Q. For his career, he's a slightly reverse splits guy. This year, it's not the case.

AARON BOONE: Yeah.

Q. What do you guys see there?

AARON BOONE: Yeah, we view him kind of a neutral guy. Frankly, a lot of their guys are. A lot of their pen guys and a lot of their right, left. Kind of neutral. With the four-seam fastball and the change-up, that gives him a good arsenal to have success against left-handed hitters. But being right-handed, he's got that built-in advantage, too. So view him kind of neutral.

Q. Aaron, are guys working out at GMS for you today?

AARON BOONE: Yes, a lot of them are there. As we speak, probably finishing up right now. Our pitchers are there throwing and doing things, and a number of position players over there, as well.

Q. What's the benefit of working out there versus at the Trop?

AARON BOONE: Oh, I mean, you just, you've got a full facility, our training stuff, modalities, things like that, plenty of fields to get whatever space you need. We've got Trajekt for guys who want to get on that. And staying in Tampa, it's a quick, easier back and forth.

Q. Aaron, if you go back to Spring Training, I don't know if you were planning on Spencer Jones and George Lombard playing in playoff games for you, but what do you think has allowed them to be ready for this moment and to take on that challenge?

AARON BOONE: I think, first of all, their makeup, the maturity.

Certainly, in George's case, as a really young player, 21 years old, that's what's really impressed me about him since he's come up. He comes up and a lot of anticipation of him coming up and going into short. Having some immediate success, having a week where he really struggled, how is he going to respond that? He's responded all to it excellent.

He's just got a great head on his shoulders, a really good routine. He loves the game, which I think is always important. Like, he loves the stuff that's not sexy or, you know, the behind the scenes, the grind, the routine, coupled with being a very talented player, obviously.

Has done a great job of just improving, really, year after year, yes, but month over month. I feel like even now, he's a more polished, better player than he was when he got to us when we first called him up.

As far as Spencer's going, he's had another really good season. And like George, has gotten better. He kind of tore up the minor leagues and tore up Triple-A and was biding his time, waiting for opportunities. He's gotten a couple of different opportunities, and I think one thing that stood out is just his ability to have a plan going into the game and being able to adjust. I've talked a lot about -- I feel like he's got a really good grasp on who he is as a player and what his strengths and weaknesses are, as well as developing a plan going into the game about what that pitcher strength and strengths and weaknesses are.

So he's done a really good job. I feel like he's got some moxie, and he's got a good, calm head on his shoulders. He's not overwhelmed. And he's -- he's kind of got that easy going thing about him, that southern California thing about him that I think serves him well. And obviously, he's played a big role for us.

Q. Adding those guys to Rice and Schlittler, what does that say about your player development?

AARON BOONE: Yeah. I mean, look, I think it's been a very gratifying couple of weeks for our player development, and deservedly so. Like Kevin Reese has done a great job of continuing to make really good hires, continuing to put people in places to help develop our guys, and they deserve a ton of credit for really, in a season where we've been beat up and banged up, we've had answers.

And that's large in part due to some of the fruits of our player development, and they deserve a lot of credit for that.

Q. Aaron, what was the risk/reward calculation in deciding not to use Stanton in the two blow-outs against Boston? I guess there's some thought of, you know, any at-bat could hurt himself versus, you know, what's one or two at-bats in getting him ready for this series?

AARON BOONE: They were blow-outs? It was one-run games in the 7th both days. So, like, you know, it's not summer ball. I don't know where that necessarily existed. There was one time I was about to use him, changed my mind literally in the 7th inning stretch, and that was the inning that ultimately Spencer led off with the hit and we blew that game open late.

So Big G is ready to go. He's been getting his reps. He's mentally there. Even though a strikeout last night, I watched that at-bat and go, ooh, I like where he's at. He's on things. He's recognizing pitches well. So he'll continue to be a threat for us the rest of the series.

Q. So one or two real game at-bats really wouldn't move the needle much, I guess, in your mind?

AARON BOONE: I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. Everything matters. But there's no courtesy at-bats this time of year. I could have hit him for Rice when we were up before his Grand Slam.

Q. I wouldn't advise that.

AARON BOONE: Yeah. I agree.

Q. For Carlos, what are you doing to keep him sharp on the side between the long layoff? It's going to be -- have you figured out how to line up him and Max for 3 and 4?

AARON BOONE: It will be one or the other. We're still working through that. Kind of depends maybe a little bit how these games unfold and how we want to make guys available. Carlos threw a live, four-up live, oh, shoot, what's today? Sunday? So he threw that -- when did we -- we played -- Thursday, he did a four-up live. So he was pretty extended on pretty full go on Thursday on the workout day.

So before we left, he threw at Yankee Stadium live. So that will decide how we want to use him as far as do we want another bullpen ahead of his next one? Do we want to make him available in a Game 2, 3 scenario in some way, shape, or form?

So we're kind of working through that and won't necessarily reveal how we go there the rest of the way, too.

Q. Realize it was overlooked yesterday because of the offense. What did you think of Weathers and the whole job the bullpen did?

AARON BOONE: Great. I mean, we pitched. You know, that's the tough part is you hold them down to one run, and you don't get the win. So that's tough because we did what we needed to defensively and on the mound.

Gerrit getting us off to a really good start, really good to see Weathers come in there and throw strikes, have sweet contact, have a clean, efficient, short inning. Again, I think he can be massive for us in the postseason. I thought Paul came in, threw really well. He was efficient. What, he ended up getting five outs before handing off to Headrick.

So pitching absolutely did their job really, really well. The couple of situations that Gerrit got into, he executed big-time when he needed to. And I thought, overall, threw the ball really well.

So it's good to see our pitching again be mostly just excellent.

Q. What's Judge doing today?

AARON BOONE: I don't know. He didn't run yesterday. He was off from running, so I know he's running again today. I think we'll get some live in. So just another workday, trying to stack another good day and, obviously, continue to heal up.

Q. And you've managed a lot of games at the Trop. What did you think of the crowd yesterday? Did it surprise you?

AARON BOONE: Oh, I don't know if it surprised me. When we're there, there tends to be fairly full anyway so it's not, I think, some of the experience that people have there. But it was a great environment. Obviously, having the top deck filled, it was loud. It felt, you know, even when we went out for BP and people were already there, it felt like a big atmosphere. So I thought they did a great job.

It was loud, it felt like a playoff game, so it was good to be in that environment and hopefully we can earn ourselves a split in this next one. But I thought it was a really good environment.

Q. Was it weird getting booed there?

AARON BOONE: No, no. We have experience with that. Certainly, I do.

THE MODERATOR: Aaron, thanks for taking the time.