Aaron Boone puts reputation and job on the line with bold Walker Buehler diss

The New York Yankees are trying to get back in the win column in the World Series on Monday night, as they return to the Bronx for Game 3. The Yankees saw Game 1 slip away from them in the form of an 10th inning, walk-off grand slam to Los Angeles Dodgers star Freddie Freeman after manager Aaron Boone put in Nestor Cortes, who hadn't pitched in a game in over a month. They were dominated by Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 2, and a ninth-inning rally fell short, losing 4-2.

The Yankees are certainly hoping that home field advantage will provide a massive assist for Games 3-5. On Monday night, the Yankees batters will take on Dodgers starting pitcher Walker Buehler, who had an up-and-down postseason for his team. The last thing you want to do is poke the proverbial bear. Boone may have done that.

While speaking with reporters, Boone was asked about his decision to start Jose Trevino at catcher over Austin Wells in Game 3. Trevino, a right-handed bat, would be facing off against Buehler, who struggles against left-handed hitting. Wells is a left-handed hitter. Boone said immediately that, "righties have hit him pretty well too."

"Historically, he's fairly -- we view him very neutral," said Boone. "This just comes down to I just felt like it was the right day to get [Trevino] in there with what Austin's gone through offensively the last couple of months. Again, I still maintain, I have a lot of confidence in Austin that he's going to have a big at-bat for us, the right at-bat for us, but I just felt that getting some more balance in there was the right thing to do tonight."

For more news and rumors, check out MLB Insider Robert Murray’s work on The Baseball Insiders podcast, subscribe to The Moonshot, our weekly MLB newsletter, and join the discord to get the inside scoop between now and the MLB offseason.

The last thing you want to do is provide bulletin board material for your opponent. For Boone, he may have done just that when justifying why he's starting Trevino over Wells.

Boone isn't necessarily lying when making that assessment. Here is how Buehler performed against lefty and righty batters in the regular season.

Buehler's splits between left-handed and right-handed hitters is pretty equal in the regular season, so Boone is making a point. In the postseason, however, Buehler has allowed a .313 batting average to left-handed batters in 3.2 innings, while allowing a .238 batting average to right-handed batters in 5.1 innings.

But the last thing you want to do is give Buehler extra motivation ahead of his start, even if he was justifying his decision.

It's important to note that Wells has been horrible in the batter's box this postseason, posting a .098 batting average, a .330 OPS, and 18 strikeouts in 41 at-bats. Trevino hasn't played much in the playoffs this year, only getting three at-bats, where he notched an RBI single in ALCS Game 3 against the Cleveland Guardians. But, the Yankees just eliminated a left-handed batter from the lineup against Buehler. Sure, they have Juan Soto, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Anthony Rizzo, and Alex Verdugo in the lineup as lefty bats, but still. Let's not forget that Trevino is a liability behind home plate because of his lack of arm strength and the Dodgers could feasibly steal plenty of bases on Monday night.

We'll see if Boone was right in his assessment of facing Buehler, or if the Dodgers starter will make the Yankees skipper eat his words.