No relief for Girardi

Phillies manager on the hook for years of questionable choices

The 2020 Phillies lost 32 games, blowing leads in 14 and failing to outpace the Miami Marlins for a playoff spot.

The 2021 Phillies, under new personnel boss Dave Dombrowski, changed pitching coaches and scuttled their bullpen, spending freely on the likes of Sam Coonrod and Archie Bradley. So hideous were the results that, come the trade deadline, the bullpen was imagined… and became worse.

The 2022 Phillies would be different, with Corey Knebel, Brad Hand and Jeurys Familia giving the bullpen a fresh feel. Yet in the middle of May, it’s clear that the Phillies are doomed to another summer of late-night comedy.

So, recapping the scoring: Two upper-management structures, four bullpen looks, two pitching coaches and dozens of millions of John Middleton’s dollars wasted over one-and-a-half full seasons and 35 games. But during that time, there has been at least one constant.

Give it up, everybody, for Joe Girardi.

Because it’s how it’s done in the talk-show, social-media, angry-fan-mob, hot-take era, there must be a personification for any sports failure, and 95 percent of the time it will be the head coach or manager. (The other five percent would be the football quarterback.) Typically, it’s an overreaction, a painless simplification, a sick-mind way to bully someone anonymously. His fault. Him. That guy.

But the data are piling up on the Phillies’ lame-duck manager, whose touch with relief pitchers has been so horrifying that his bosses, power hitters, starting pitchers and reasonable fans have to wonder if he has the wrong number on the bullpen-phone speed dial. The occasional bad-luck arm choice is expected and budgeted for in the 162-game plan. But at some point, consistent failure in one area is a reflection on the manager.

Girardi came to the Phillies with a reputation as an expert bullpen maestro. That, though, was built while he was allowed to manage the only unanimous first-ballot Hall of Fame player, Mariano Rivera. When Rivera

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Phillies manager Joe Girardi, left, pulls starter Zach Eflin, right, against the Colorado Rockies in Denver last month as Rhys Hoskins looks on.