It's only a few weeks until New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone stands before a clubhouse full of players in Tampa, addressing not only his uber-roster but also the expectations that make the heart sprint.

Yes, both can be true. The Yankees are by far the American League's most talented team—a manager's dream. But nothing short of a world championship will satisfy a fan base that's been starving for a decade.

That's a manager's poison.

Boone, however, is the right guy for this duality. In his first two years with the Bombers, he's proved to be calm without appearing disconnected. Smart without being smug. In touch with his players without spending too much time at their lockers—a tightrope every manager has to walk lest the room turns against him.

Then again, not every skipper has to win the World Series, which is Boone's mandate, not that the Steinbrenner family or general manager Brian Cashman would ever say so. But Gerrit Cole didn't pocket $324 million without strings attached, nor does Boone get to lead the most dominant Yankees team in a generation—on paper—without delivering the goods.

Here's the upside, though: Boone has the complete and unconditional support of his boss, Cashman, and his boss, owner Hal Steinbrenner. In a year during which return on investment will be the most important metric, none of the heat is flowing from the top down.

"Look, I hired Aaron for a reason," Cashman said by telephone to B/R on Thursday. "Everything he's done since I first interviewed him has been validated. To me, he's been a godsend."

The GM proceeded to name all the boxes Boone has checked off since succeeding Joe Girardi, including his back-to-back 100-win seasons—a record for a manager in his first two seasons. And if you really want to talk about the responsibility Boone faces in 2020, Cashman says it's no big deal. His manager has already been baptized, courtesy of that '18 season.

"We were one game away from the World Series [in 2017] and Boonie was replacing the guy [Girardi] who'd never finished under .500," Cashman said. "That's pressure. So he gets the job and then we trade for [Giancarlo] Stanton, who was the reigning National League MVP. Suddenly we were the team to beat. That's not an easy situation to walk into." 

Boone immediately impressed the Yankees community with those checked boxes, not the least of which was his eloquence in front of the YES Network cameras. In that sense, he's already crushed Girardi's legacy; on live TV, his predecessor had the personality of a clenched fist.

But if you're looking for a strict interpretation of Boone's record, he's gotten no further in the postseason than Girardi, right?

Well, hold on. It's true the Bombers fell short in both 2018 and 2019, but the more facts that came to light about the Houston Astros' sign-stealing scandal, the more the Yankees believe potential championships were stolen by Houston in 2017 and 2019.

When CC Sabathia recently said, "I knew those motherf--kers didn't beat us fair and square. I knew we're better than them, man! F--k!" he wasn't just speaking for himself. He was voicing the sentiment of the entire organization. And the rage goes even deeper. The Yankees are convinced the Boston Red Sox will soon be punished for similar dirty tricks, thus invalidating Boston's four-game conquest of the Yankees in the 2018 American League Division Series. 

That's largely why the Bombers' higher-ups loves Boone: because he's honest.

"He has a growth mindset. He is open to anything that makes us better," said Cashman, pausing for dramatic effect before delivering the kicker.

"Within the rules, that is."

That's the unspoken battle cry for 2020: that it's finally the Yankees' time. And this time, the champions won't have to cheat. If all goes well, Cole will be to this year's team what Reggie Jackson was to the '77 club, catalyzing the Yankees to back-to-back championships.

Cole can do the same, assuming Stanton and Aaron Judge stay healthy, Gio Urshela's breakout season wasn't an outlier and James Paxton, relieved of the burden of being the Bombers' ace, will blossom as their No. 2 starter behind Cole.

Those are only a few of their best-case scenarios. They do seem realistic in theory. And remember this: The Astros, already facing a long summer of penance, will be trying to compensate for the loss of their best pitcher in Cole.

But as inviting as the Yankees' chances seem, Cashman is just as quick to say the Bombers are World Series "contenders," not "favorites," and that nothing can deflate a heavily scrutinized team faster than a lousy April and May.

"Timing is everything" is Cashman's way of cautioning the ticket-buyers about celebrating too soon. That's why he's counting on Boone to do what he does best: not overreact to the media's hyper-focus and steer clear of the nostalgia for the late-'90s golden era.

It takes a certain personality not to get swept away in that riptide. But Boone's inner Zen revealed itself in his first team meeting during spring training in 2018. He stood before the Yankees as a total novice—a former big leaguer with moments of Yankees fame who'd turned into an ESPN analyst. He had never managed or coached a game in his life.

The present-day Bombers were, if not skeptical, understandably curious. The result? The meeting lasted less than 90 seconds. No rah-rah speech was necessary. No new rules. Nothing other than a calm vote of confidence.

"I remember thinking, 'Wow, Boonie gets it,'" Brett Gardner said that day. "I knew I was going to like playing for him."

Fast-forward to 2020 and the calculus isn't all that different: Bronx pressure, tabloid heat and just enough Zen to keep it all under control.

Welcome to Boone 2.0.