Aaron Boone is the Yankees biggest postseason wild card | Politi

The first-year manager is facing the usual massive expectations. Can he avoid the snafu that will haunt him and his team?

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NEW YORK — Aaron Boone is trying to bring his typical California cool to the AL Wild Card cauldron, so maybe this isn’t the best time to point out what happened to his predecessor a year ago this month.

Joe Girardi: 

— Navigated a first-inning implosion from Luis Severino — the same man Boone tabbed as his wild card starter — with a masterful use of his bullpen to beat the Twins in the do-or-die game.

— Survived a 2-0 hole and his own massive brain fart in the division series, rallying to beat the 102-win Cleveland Indians even with MVP runner-up Aaron Judge striking out at a record pace.

— Took the eventual World Series champions to Game 7 of the American League Championship Series, only bowing out when his loaded lineup could muster just a single run in the final two games.

For this, Girardi got fired.

Boone can validate that decision over the next four years if he leads the Yankees to their 28th World Series title. He can also make it look a colossal blunder with one poor decision — and, given the potential pitfalls in October, one is more likely that the other. 

“When you put on this uniform, that goes with the territory,” Boone said before the Yankees and their opponent, the Oakland A’s, worked out in the Bronx. “I view that pressure as a privilege.” 

He begins his first postseason as a manager with a decision that will be easy to second guess if it backfires. Severino might be the Yankees most-talented starting pitcher, but during the final two months of this season, J.A. Happ has been their most effective one — and it hasn’t really been close. 

Severino not only has a 5.67 ERA over his last 14 starts, but four weeks ago, this same A’s team tagged him for six runs in 2 2/3 innings. If analytics (or his boss Brian Cashman) factored into this decision, Boone passed on several opportunities to explain why on Tuesday.

“I feel like after some bumps in the road certainly the second half of the season, he’s turned a corner and really started to throw the ball better,” Boone explained, although that sure feels like more of a hunch than a certainty.

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Add in the fact that Severino and catcher Gary Sanchez have had communication problems during the season, and the Yankees enter this one-game test with more questions than you’d expected from a 100-win team.

Maybe they’ll bludgeon the A’s and whichever six or seven pitchers they send to the mound. But make no mistake: A loss on Wednesday night will erase much a successful spring and summer from this team and, for the most part, its 45-year-old first-time skipper. 

Boone was just the sixth rookie manager to crack triple digits in victories, but for the most part, he was handed the keys to a Maserati and didn’t drive it into a wall. He lost Judge for two months, dealt with Severino’s surprising struggles and had his laid-back approach questioned when the team hit its August rough patch. 

Funny, isn’t is, how Girardi always heard he was wound too tight when the Yankees struggled, while with Boone, the criticism is the opposite? The best way for a Yankees manager to handle losing hasn’t changed since they were called the Highlanders.

Don’t.

“We’ve had a great season to this point, but that’s now behind us, and the real season starts now,” Boone said. “Our guys will be ready, and I look forward to watching them go out and do their thing.”

There are reasons to believe that this could — even should — be a long and fruitful postseason for this team. If the beat the A’s, Happ will be lined up to face the Red Sox in Games 1 and (potentially) 5 of the division series in Boston, and he’s owned them.

If the Yankees get past Boston, whoever they’d play in the ALCS — Cleveland or Houston — would have a better rotation. But Boone would have an elite bullpen and the best long-ball lineup in the sport’s history. He’d have to feel pretty good about his team’s chances.

Even then, of course, if he gets within a game of winning that AL pennant he would only be matching what the last man to fill his seat did. The Yankees believed they needed a new voice when they parted ways with Girardi, plucking a man who, this time a year ago, was a happy talking head on TV who could spend his free time playing golf. 

Now Boone will wear the weight of the pinstripes into a win-or-go-home game as manager. He can make the Yankees look very smart for giving him the job if he gets it right. The alternative is something he’ll want to avoid. 

Steve Politi may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @StevePoliti. Find NJ.com on Facebook.