Despite all the money the Steinbrenner family has invested in the Yankees, the team hasn’t won a championship in more than 16 years. Aaron Boone isn’t the cause of the entire drought; he wasn’t even managing for most of it, but he arguably had the strongest roster during this stretch. Even so, Hal Steinbrenner insists Boone carries no responsibility at all.

“You can’t pin this on Aaron Boone, that’s for sure. This Toronto series was on the players.” Steinbrenner said Monday via Zoom.

“I’ve been asked this question so many times. He’s a good manager at many of the things he has to do. He’s not perfect. I’m not perfect. You’re not perfect. But he is great at dealing with the players, his staff, Cash’s people, Cash, and you guys. And he makes overall good decisions on the field.”

That was just one piece of Hal Steinbrenner’s defense of Boone, who’s now set to return for his ninth season.

“It’s on the players’ shoulders, period,“ he added.

If even one of those losses had gone the other way, the Yankees would’ve won the division outright. Instead, they ended up tied with the Blue Jays, lost the tiebreaker, and paid for it when they met them in the ALDS.

Hal Steinbrenner further added, “They didn’t hit. We had a couple of bad starts. And obviously against the Blue Jays, as I’ve already said, you can’t do any of that. When they’re playing as good as they were playing, entering the playoffs.”

Hal Steinbrenner defending Aaron Boone might frustrate a lot of fans, but even a former Yankee confirmed earlier this season that Boone is basically just a figurehead within the organization.

He is handed the plans in advance, the seventh-inning roles, the batting order, and most major in-game decisions. Boone operates within a tightly controlled organizational structure, often serving more as the public face than the strategic driver fans imagine.

Still, one of the biggest criticisms of his tenure is the repeated midseason collapses. Even Hal Steinbrenner referenced this summer’s “six to seven week period” in which the Yankees played sloppy, uninspired baseball.

And while Boone isn’t responsible for the entire 16-year championship drought, his track record complicates Steinbrenner’s defense. Since 2018, his teams have consistently started strong only to stumble in the middle of the season, the 2020 fade, the 2021 inconsistency, the 2022 post-All-Star break collapse, the 2023 June-to-July skid, the 2024 post-deadline dip, and the latest 2025 slump. These downturns have contributed to familiar postseason exits in the ALDS and ALCS, creating a cycle of early momentum followed by late-season failures.

New York built this roster to overpower opponents, but that firepower disappeared in October. Some core pieces remain part of the long-term vision, yet the front office now faces major offseason decisions. Combined with Steinbrenner’s comments about Boone and the team’s finances, it’s no surprise Yankees fans are growing increasingly frustrated.

Yankees fans are upset with owner Hal Steinbrenner

When Hal Steinbrenner spoke to the media on Monday, he was asked about the Yankees’ 2026 payroll situation. He said it was “not fair” to assume the team made a profit in 2025. He added that they would ideally like to reduce payroll.

Via Brendan Kuty of The Athletic, Hal Steinbrenner said, “Would it be ideal if I went down? Of course. But does that mean that’s going to happen? Of course not.”

The Yankees have talked about cutting payroll several times in recent years. However, it hasn’t really changed the way they operate. Yes, the Dodgers outspent them last season, but that alone doesn’t tell the whole story.

For many Yankees fans, the real frustration is that the team hasn’t won a World Series since 2009. They make the playoffs almost every year, but that long wait for title No. 28 has become a constant discussion.

Hal Steinbrenner has brushed off that sentiment before, which hasn’t exactly helped his standing with the fanbase.

Steinbrenner has previously said that a payroll over $300 million is “unsustainable.”

He insisted that one shouldn’t need that kind of spending to win a championship. Then again, he used to say the same thing about a $220 million payroll.

Hal Steinbrenner admitted, “Of course it’s a concern,” when asked if the Dodgers might be pulling ahead. But he still wouldn’t link having the biggest payroll to winning championships. So maybe the real issue isn’t how much the Yankees spend, but how they’re spending it?