NEW YORK — A person familiar with the decision says the New York Yankees have picked ESPN broadcaster Aaron Boone to succeed Joe Girardi as manager. The person spoke on condition of anonymity Friday night because the decision had not been announced by the team.

The decision was first reported by former New York Daily News columnist Bill Madden.

Now 44, Boone has never been a manager or even a coach at any level since retiring as a player after the 2009 season. His 11th-inning home run off Boston’s Tim Wakefield won Game 7 of the AL Championship Series for the Yankees against Boston.

Boone’s grandfather, Ray, was a two-time All-Star infielder from 1948-60. His father, Bob, was a four-time All-Star catcher from 1972-90, then managed Kansas City from 1995-97 and Cincinnati from 2001-03.

Aaron Boone was a big league third baseman from 1997-2009 and an All-Star in 2003, when New York acquired him from the Reds at the trade deadline.

MAJOR LEAGUE Baseball owners voted unanimously Friday to approve a new posting agreement with their Japanese counterparts, a move that allowed bidding to start for coveted pitcher and outfielder Shohei Ohtani.

Following the deal with Nippon Professional Baseball, Ohtani was put up for bid by the Pacific League’s Nippon Ham Fighters for the maximum $20 million posting fee. That opened a window for the 23-year-old to reach agreement on a contract with an MLB team until 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 22.

Under MLB’s new collective bargaining agreement, Ohtani is limited to a minor league contract subject to a team’s signing bonus pool. Texas has the most available at $3,535,000, followed by the New York Yankees ($3.5 million), Minnesota ($3.07 million), Pittsburgh ($2,266,750), Seattle ($1,557,500), Miami ($1.49 million) and the Los Angeles Angels ($1,315,000).

Ohtani was in Los Angeles, a person familiar with his location said. That person spoke on condition of anonymity because no announcement was made.

His agent, CAA Baseball co-head Nez Balelo, sent a memorandum to all teams Nov. 24 asking for “presentations in both Japanese and English via email” allowing the agency to “share it with the Ohtani family so we can proceed with our due diligence.”

DRUG TESTING: MLB boosted its drug test total 25 percent in the year ending with the World Series.

The sport’s new Independent Public Administrator said there were 10,237 tests of players on 40-man major league rosters, including 8,235 urine samples for performance-enhancing substances, stimulants and the drug DHEA, and 2,002 blood samples for human growth hormone.

That was up from 8,281 tests over the previous year, which included 6,634 urine samples and 1,647 blood samples.

Two major leaguers had positive tests for banned stimulants, one each for Adderall and D-Amphetamine. The players were not identified because of the penalty for first offenses for stimulants and the drug DHEA is six additional urine tests over the next year rather than a suspension.

WHITE SOX: Catcher Welington Castillo agreed to a $15 million, two-year contract with Chicago, which avoided arbitration with right-hander Danny Farquhar by reaching a $1.05 million, one-year deal.

AWARDS: Colorado closer Greg Holland was voted NL Comeback Player of the Year and Kansas City third baseman Mike Moustakas was selected as the AL Comeback Player of the Year.

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