Girardi out; Yankees take foolish risk
After guiding New York to the ALCS, manager might head to TV booth
There used to be a time when it was a prestigious job.
There were only 30 of them in the world, and being a Major League Baseball manager, you were the face and, in many cases, the power of the organization.
You had Bobby Cox in Atlanta, Tony La Russa in St. Louis, Joe Torre in New York, veteran managers who were three of the most powerful men in the game.
These days, a manager has a bit more authority than the stadium groundskeeper.
We were reminded of that again Thursday when the New York Yankees fired Joe Girardi, who had the finest season of his career, leading the team to within one game of the World Series, in one of the most improbable seasons in recent Yankees history.
Oh, sure, the Yankees remind us, technically, he wasn’t fired. He just won’t be offered a new contract.
It’s baseball, 2017 style, where the general managers have all the clout, telling managers just what to do, how to do it and if they don’t like it there are a whole lot of folks that will.
This is an industry that will generate more than $10 billion this year, and managers’ salaries are actually shrinking, with higher pay scales 15 years ago than today.
There are only two managers, Bruce Bochy of San Francisco Giants and Mike Scioscia of the Los Angeles Angels, who earn more than $5 million a year, less than some offensive coordinators in college football these days.
It doesn’t even matter how successful you are to keep your job. Why, in the last two weeks, there have been three managers discarded like a week-old pizza box, despite making the postseason. Dusty Baker led the Washington Nationals to 192 victories the last two seasons, including the only back-to-back division titles in franchise history, and is dumped. John Farrell, who led the Boston Red Sox to the 2013 World Series championship and back-to-back division titles, was fired. And now Girardi, despite taking a team that had no business reaching the ALCS and has never had a losing record in 10 years with the club. Come on, are you kidding? There are kids out of college who get hired in team’s analytics departments with all the personality of Sean Spicer, and they have more job security than the fellow making thousands of real-time decisions, a tightrope 162 times a year.
“I’ve watched a lot of turnover in this sport,” Houston Astros manager A.J. Hinch said Thursday after Girardi’s dismissal. “It brings a lot of appreciation for having one of these jobs, for keeping one of these jobs, for all the work that goes in. I don’t think anyone can relate to what a manager does.
“It’s a shame to see so much turnover because of the work, the blood, sweat and tears poured into these jobs. As more guys get opportunities to be a manager, I urge them to enjoy it, because it can be short-lived.”
Girardi, who likely will take a TV gig and sit out for a year, will be fine. If he takes any job, it would be with the Nationals, who could actually save a little face by hiring him. Then again, that would mean actually paying him a suitable salary, after he earned $4 million a year with the Yankees, twice as much as the Nats paid Baker.
If the Red Sox had known Girardi would be available, can you imagine how quickly GM Dave Dombrowski would have dialed his number, hiring not only one of the game’s top managers but also the man who has the key to all of the Yankees’ secrets.
The Bronx Zoo is not only alive in New York but flourishing, where their entire coaching staff, and most of their front office, are free agents, including GM Brian Cashman.
The trouble is that virtually every team is being run the same way, and security is only an eightletter word.