Girardi wants to stick with Yankees

Gardenhire has prostate cancer

TAMPA, Fla. — Starting his 10th season as New York Yankees manager, Joe Girardi wants to lead the team beyond 2017 and watch the Baby Bombers mature.

Girardi is entering the final season of a $16 million, fouryear contract. The Yankees won the 2009 World Series in his second season but have missed the postseason in three of the past four years, have not won a postseason game since the 2012 AL Division Series and pivoted toward youth last summer.

“I don’t envision myself doing anything different,” Girardi said as pitchers and catchers reported for spring training. “This is what I know, this is what I’ve done for a long time.”

Girardi doesn’t anticipate discussions about an extension with owner Hal Steinbrenner before the end of the season.

“It doesn’t really impact me,” Girardi said. “I’m going to go do my job the same way, the way that I believe is, for me, the right way. They have not extended managers as long as I can remember during the course of the season. So, I’ll just go do my job and whatever happens, happens.”

GARDENHIRE: New Arizona bench coach and former longtime Minnesota Twins manager Ron Gardenhire has prostate cancer.

The 59-year-old Gardenhire revealed the diagnosis in a meeting with reporters Tuesday, saying it was the only time he would talk publicly about the subject this spring.

Gardenhire said he received the diagnosis about a week ago after tests in Minnesota and would undergo surgery to remove the prostate gland, probably the second week in April.

He said doctors believe they caught the cancer early and there was no sign of the disease when he took his annual physical exam in January of last year.

MARLINS: For Miami, the first day of spring training was as much about who was missing as who was present.

Tuesday, the first official workout for pitchers and catchers, was the players’ ninth day together as a team since ace Jose Fernandez died late last season. His permanent absence served as a theme at the dawn of the new season, as it will for most of 2017.

“There’s a lot more hugs in the room than I’m used to in a major league clubhouse,” club president David Samson said. “The hugs used to come after big victories or come after you win a playoff series. But the hugs feel different this year.”

Samson said Fernandez’s locker at Marlins Park will remain empty as “a reminder,” and the team is still discussing other ways to honor him this year.

CUBS: After adding Brett Anderson, Eddie Butler and Alec Mills over the last three weeks, general manager Jed Hoyer said the Cubs currently don’t have any deals looming.

But the Cubs are mindful about the length of the season, so they have some built-in financial flexibility as they did last July when they acquired formidable closer Aroldis Chapman.

“We have a nice cushion to do some things,” president Theo Epstein said.

ARBITRATION: Tampa Bay’s Jake Odorizziwas given a raise from $520,700 to $4.1 million by arbitrators. Also winning his case was Toronto’s Marcus Stroman, who got a boost from $525,900 to $3.4 million.

Among the arbitration losers was St. Louis’ Michael Wacha, who was awarded a raise from $539,000 to $2,775,000.