Aaron Boone on Yankees future after describing season as ‘tough year for me personally’

At the end of what he described as a “tough year for me personally,” Aaron Boone indicated he still expects to be back for a ninth season as the Yankees manager.

“I’m under contract, so I don’t expect anything,” Boone said after the Yankees lost to the Blue Jays 5-2 to drop the ALDS 3-1 on Wednesday night in The Bronx.

In spring training this year, Boone signed a two-year contract extension that takes him through the 2027 season, which would be his 10th at the helm.

But he remains in search of bringing the organization its first championship since 2009, with the postseason heartbreaks piling up.

“I know for me personally, I know for a lot of those guys, it also continues to ignite your fire to want to get back and play in these meaningful games and have a chance at glory,” Boone said.

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The Yankees started and finished the season strong, with a rough summer in between that took too long to snap out of.

Through it all, Boone’s players and GM Brian Cashman continued to back him, defending how he led them through the roller coaster of the season.

“Just a hard year,” Boone said. “There were just some tough moments, but also like in a lot of ways very rewarding to go through some of the moments we went through in the middle of the season especially.

“To see this kind of team come together in a really special way. That is a tight knit — and I feel like we got so much better in the final couple months of the season. So it was more a very tough year on me, that’s all. And it’s not about me, but that’s all I was saying. But also very rewarding to go through and see what these guys became.”

For the first time since Game 1 of the AL wild-card series, Boone started veteran Paul Goldschmidt at first base over Ben Rice, wanting to fully balance out the lineup between left-handed and right-handed bats against the Blue Jays’ bullpen game.

The 38-year-old Goldschmidt, who said after the game he wants to keep playing, went 0-for-1 with a walk and hit by pitch before Rice pinch-hit for him in the seventh inning and drew a pair of walks.

In addition to his top-notch defense at third base, Ryan McMahon consistently delivered some of the Yankees’ best at-bats during the postseason and was rewarded for it in a left-on-left home run that tied the game in the third inning. It was his first career playoff homer.