Posada feels unwelcome, but his Yankees criticism is not a call to fire Boone

Jorge Posada says he does not feel welcome around the Yankees. But his criticism of his former club comes with a distinction that should not get lost: he still backs Brian Cashman and Aaron Boone.

In an interview with Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman on the New York Post's The Show, published Tuesday, Posada said, "I don't feel welcome." The Post reports that he was answering a question about whether he might help the team. He linked his discomfort to the difficult end of his playing career in 2011, rather than identifying a specific new incident.

That is an account of how Posada feels, not an announcement that the Yankees have banned him from returning. Matt Ehalt's report for the Post says Cashman declined to comment for that story. The available accounts do not establish the club's reasons or settle what a future role might look like.

Accountability before October

ESPN's account of the interview says Posada repeatedly endorsed Cashman and Boone as the people to lead the team while placing primary responsibility for its postseason shortcomings on the players. He suggested adding a stronger voice to the coaching staff to push them.

His practical argument was about the regular season. Mistakes become more conspicuous in the playoffs, but the standards have to be enforced earlier. Posada pointed to a failure to run to first base as the kind of lapse that should bring an immediate consequence, rather than a complaint saved for October.

An unresolved relationship

There are two questions here. One concerns whether a former player feels valued when he returns to his old organization. The other concerns what the current team demands of its players. Treating the interview simply as a demand to replace the manager would blur both.

Posada's feelings deserve to be reported as his own, without inventing a new feud or a formal exclusion. His baseball argument deserves the same care: stronger everyday accountability, coupled with support for the general manager and manager. Those positions can coexist.