The Yankees had gauged Sean Casey’s interest in joining Aaron Boone’s coaching staff during this past offseason, but the former All-Star was unable to make that commitment due to multiple health issues involving his family.
Casey, who was hired Monday to replace Dillon Lawson as the Yankees’ hitting coach, revealed he initially discussed becoming the team’s assistant hitting instructor in January before that job went to former major leaguer Brad Wilkerson.
“There was an interest, and that was the assistant role. But at that time, it just really didn’t work,” Casey said Wednesday on a Zoom call.
“My fiancée had just been diagnosed with breast cancer in January, and my dad was just coming back from a second open-heart surgery and my two daughters were at home. … It just wasn’t the right time to do it. So I just couldn’t do it back in January. I couldn’t commit to it.
“Obviously it’s a different season for me and my life right now. Like I said, my dad’s home and he’s doing well, and my fiancée just finished up her radiation and she’s cancer-free right now and, and it all just seemed to work.”
Lawson was fired on Sunday after the Yankees posted a team batting average of .231 through the All-Star break.
Casey, who was a teammate of Boone’s with the Reds from 1998-2003, said the Yankees skipper reached out to him over the weekend to gauge his interest in taking over for the remainder of the season.
“I had talked to Boonie, but I always talk to Boonie a lot,” said Casey, who had been working as an MLB Network analyst. “He had called about my fiancée — she had just finished her cancer treatment, and he was kind of checking in on that.
“We kind of started going back and forth just to see if the interest was there to join the Yankees for the second half. …I didn’t even know initially if it was serious or was it just going down a rabbit hole? Was it just in our conversation?
“But I felt like the conversation was a little different. I feel like there was a kind of seriousness in his voice. We revisited it over the weekend, and then the ball just kind of got rolling. I said if the opportunity presented itself for me to be the hitting coach of the Yankees, I would definitely be interested.”