The New York Yankees have selected former star player Aaron Boone to replace Joe Girardi as manager, United States media reported on Friday.

The Yankees let former manager Joe Girardi, 53, go after their season ended in October when team GM Brian Cashman recommended to owner Hal Steinbrenner that the pinstriped ones find a new leader.

ESPN's Buster Olney confirmed the hire.

Boone and Giants bench coach Hensley Meulins were said to be the two finalists for the job, but Giants beat writer Henry Schulman reported Meulins would not be leaving San Francisco.

Boone, an ESPN baseball analyst since 2010, has never managed or coached at any level. That last part might be one of the main differences between Boone and the man he replaces, Joe Girardi, though we won't know for sure until he start managing some games. "There's a lot to consider, and there's a lot of great information out there that is instilled into the game today".

The 44-year-old Boone is certainly no stranger to the Yankee fan base, as he hit one of the most memorable home runs in postseason history.

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Personally, if the Yankees were going to pick a manager with no experience, I would have preferred Carlos Beltran.

The Yankees' search for a manager has taken more than a month. He injured his left knee while playing basketball during the following offseason, setting off a sequence of events that led to the Yankees' February 2004 trade for Alex Rodriguez. That's a good thing, because Aaron Boone doesn't have any.

Neither Boone nor Meulens have ever managed in the big leagues.

On the sidelines of the Pac-12 championship game on Friday night stood USC product Aaron Boone, whose life-changing day added a cherry on top when his Trojans upended his father's alma mater, Stanford, for the school's first conference title in football in nine years. I think the front office has always given the Yankees the greatest chance to succeed. "He never expressed interest in any way, shape or form in it". "I looked for a lot of guidance from a lot of people that I have respect for, and Alex knows baseball as well as anybody".

According to George King of the NY Daily News - Meulens and Boone are the favorites and Beltran has an outside shot. He said he made a decision to stop the interviewing process after meeting with six candidates and that he would make a recommendation to ownership and they could go from there.

"I think for him, gosh, being picked for his first job being the New York Yankees, which is probably the premium job of any sport in the world, is quite something".