So, with the World Series behind us, Brian Cashman was finally allowed to speak publicly about the reasoning for the Girardi firing as manager of the Yankees. I must say given that SU is a veteran of the George Steinbrenner ownership era, some of these comments are a bit shocking. According to the report on espn.com, Cashman “decided the New York Yankees should part ways with Joe Girardi because he felt that the manager’s “connectivity” with the clubhouse was not good enough. That’s the primary position.”
Clearly, we live in a new era in professional sports. In the past, it was all about winning. Pat Riley was not beloved in the locker-room. Billy Martin was a lunatic and was brought back about 17 times by Steinbrenner. As long as the record was good and you were winning post-season games, owners and GMs would pretty much put up with anything. Girardi over-achieved this year record-wise given the roster. He didn’t complain having to play Chase Headley at 3rd base for 3 seasons (because he has SU there to do that on a daily basis) and was a good soldier and penciled in Todd Frazier every day once he was acquired. True – the Yankees’ run differential should have predicted more wins this season but you can trace virtually all of those losses to the bullpen. Apparently, Cashman didn’t like the way Girardi related to Chapman who he took out of the closer’s role for a while or to Betances. Wally Matthews criticized Griardi last week for not allowing Betances to stay in the game after walking the first two batters against Houston with a big lead to work out his problems with control in an ALCS game. Girardi has been criticized for getting on Sanchez for allowing so many wild pitches and passed balls.
SU says I get that we live in a different time and that we need to relate better to Millennials. Certainly this is true in the work place. But in professional sports, that has really not been the case as much – certainly not in baseball which when you come down to it, is very individualized. It’s a results business and while you get a longer leash as there are so many games, at some point you need to produce. SU had no problem pulling Betances in those games – it was hard to watch. When Chapman was terrible in July and August, no problem moving him out of the closer’s role. And every Yankee fan was screaming at the TV about Sanchez defensively.
They will now embark on a search for a more touchy/feeley manager who can relate to the players. Will that now be seen as more important than managing the bullpen and knowing when to take out your starters? If CC returns, will he intimidate the new manager about not wanting to come out of the game?
SU’s take: Cashman was not happy all season with how Girardi was using some of the great assets that he had acquired for this season. Cashman has done a great, great job over the past year and a half restocking the farm system. They are set up for success now for a long time. But please – this team has been unwatchable for the three years before that because of the steady stream of boring, older veteran players that Cashman brought in. Headley, Chris Carter, Travis Hafner, the list goes on and on. Girardi never said a word publicly and actually in SU’s view over-archieved. I was surprised that he was not a finalist this year for Manager of the Year.
I am not saying you don’t make a change at times but SU would have allowed Girardi to have 3 more years. He earned it. Expectations will be high in 2018. SU can’t wait. Good luck to the new manager.
Random note: SU stumbled across the Westchester Knicks game last night on the MSG+ Network. Trey Burke went off for 43 points. How some NBA team cannot see that he is a good player is beyond me.
Sports Update Intergalactic 
After that train wreck at Met Life on Sunday, we get a full page on Joe Girardi, a mention of Trey Burke, and no comments on the Giants? To quote the guy in the Geico commercials, “surprising.”
Hahaha, Mark. The Giants are unwatchable and McAdoo is surely gone. Even though he made the playoffs in his first year, an owner or GM is looking to see how the team responds in a year with injuries. They have stopped trying and there are suspensions all over the place. He has to be gone at the end of the year. It’s also interesting how quickly a team can go off the rails from one year to the next. Maybe this is the year Urban Meyer makes the jump!
I have no problem if McAdoo gets canned, but I think Reese should go with him…I also can’t believe how bad a year Eli Apple has had – I remember reading how he was the best player in preseason camp this year, and he has been awful, plus he absolutely quit on that 3rd and 500 screen play that went for a TD. Looking forward to the UConn women season opener on Sunday!
Cashman is all about the power. he realizes that he is probably at his peak right now with all the great trades he made and restocking the Farm system to be one of the best in MLB right now. Girardi did not need to put up with his Cashman’s neediness and therefore he made some lame excuse in why he was let go. Though i never loved Girardi’s personality the bottom line is that he was a very good coach. I was actually surprised he was not on the ballot for manager of the year along side Minnesota.
Sanchez did deserve being lectured to. Betances was give opportunities and was pulled before it became bases loaded and no outs. As we saw what one swing of the bat can do. An 8-2 kind of game could easily become an 8-6 game. I think Girardi handled Chapman quite well during his few weeks of being quite hittable.
Is it A-rod tun? No way as he has no managerial experience.
I really have no idea who will be the next in line. Certainly not MacAdoo. How about Isaiah Thomas?
Heard Girardi’s interview with Mike Francesa which was going on at the same time as Cashman was speaking. Continued to take the high road and actually joked at the end that maybe he would pull a Billy Martin some day. It is ironic that there will be no consequence to Cashman for all the bad decisions he made prior to restocking the minor league system. Joel Sherman had an interesting column yesterday in the NYP which concluded “the perfect manager for the Yankees does not exist”- I imagine that Cashman will discover this during the interview process and in the years to come.
Joel Sherman is no Girardi fan. That’s a surprising comment coming from him.
Knicks record is 6-4 vs the Thunder’s 4-6. While I don’t wish ill will on Melo and hope he finds success in OKC — maybe this is a clear lesson for NY ownership that team play and sharing the ball actually works better than a big name playing isolation ball.
Sorry for the off topic post but you never can be too sure when the opportunity to make this type comment will arise again on a Dolan owned team 😉
A few years back, when there was no obvious alternative to improve the Yankees third-base spot, Cashman gave Chase Headley a new contract. Chase Headley! So it’s interesting that a similar approach wasn’t applied to the manager’s spot. Who is out there that provides a significant upgrade to Girardi? To me, there’s no obvious answer and Girardi had success so why not bring him back?
I don’t know what clubhouse connectivity is but it seems like a lot of players do like Girardi. Some don’t. While that would be true with any manager, in this case it seems like Cashman is ready to let players like Aroldis Chapman set the tone in the clubhouse and it’s hard for me to see how that paves the way to success. Don’t we just have to look across the river to see how the Giants have fared catering to the likes of Odell Bekham? And if you want to look at a team going in the other direction, look at the Knicks who decided to stop catering to a star player and look at the results. These players do not need more coddling. They need direction and focus and the occasional wrist slap.
What a moment in yesterday’s Knicks game: Hardaway launched an ugly three pointer during the 3rd quarter and the camera caught Porzingis telling him to settle down and stop heaving wild shots. When was the last time we saw that? We also saw great 4th quarter defense and players paying attention to the plays being drawn up during timeouts.