When the Phillies hired Joe Girardi to fix their forever-.500 problem, the runners-up in their high-powered managerial derby were Dusty Baker and Buck Showalter, who each have a chance to win fourth Manager of the Year awards, respectively, with other teams.
Give the Phillies this: They identified three established and great baseball minds, and had a 67 percent chance to get it right.
But alas, they blew it.
Girardi’s firing on Friday, two-plus seasons into his dreadful Phillies tenure, was only surprising in that it came less than one-third into their season from hell.
A manager with Girardi’s pedigree often will be given more rope with which to hang himself or pull off that turnaround miracle. But Phillies baseball president Dave Dombrowski isn’t afraid to act — he once fired Phil Garner six losses into a historically dreadful Tigers season. And in this case, Girardi wasn’t Dombrowski’s mistake.
Team higher-ups want to give themselves a shot this season, and while it looks like a long one, a big change like this is probably their best hope.
Girardi looked like a solid fit when he went to Philly, a veteran team that seemed to be underachieving and appeared only a piece or two away from contending year. Turns out Girardi was not that piece.
He knows the game, but not that city. The 22-29 record (plus the lifelessness of the team and a couple questionable recent moves) is what did him in. But don’t think his own mostly emotionless demeanor didn’t hurt him, too.
Joe Girardi was considered the safe option when the Phillies hired him.Corey SipkinPhillies fans are fanatical, and radio airwaves there, as influential as anywhere, were running about 100 to 1 against. Fans who suggested Girardi didn’t care don’t know the man who bleeds losses from his days as Northwestern Joe through the Rockies, Cubs, Yankees and Marlins. He just needed to show he cared. Strangely, he seemed not to get that.
If you’re going to lose, and he lost a lot more than anyone figured – he finishes his Phillies tenure nine games under .500 after continuing complaints before he arrived the team was stuck in neutral – at least show some anger. Or maybe a little charm.
But that wasn’t Girardi’s game. While he tried with the media — and is very good as a broadcaster himself — he comes off as condescending, which doesn’t help his cause.
But let’s not kid ourselves. He just didn’t win enough.
As flawed as the Phillies are, they do have some great strengths, and should be better than this.
As one Phillies person put it, “Something had to be done to spark the team.”
Phillies ownership, led by managing partner John Middleton, spent liberally to try to change their forever .500 narrative. They doled out $330 million for superstar Bryce Harper, another $118M on talented starter Zack Wheeler, $115.3M on catcher J.T. Realmuto, then another $179M on Nick Castellanos and Kyle Schwarber, bookend corner outfielders with pop. By free agent standards, they have generally delivered, with Wheeler leading the NL in WAR last year and Harper winning his second MVP trophy.
Thanks to Harper’s all-world season they hung around the NL East race until the final weekend last year. But ultimately, they again finished about .500, causing Phillies higher-ups to defer a decision on Girardi’s option, putting him on notice.
The roster seems to be an experiment; can their great offense counteract their terrible defense? But Girardi again struggled to get the most out of it.
Girardi got a lot out of young players with the Yankees like Gary Sanchez but the reputation remains that he’s much better with veterans. Oddly last year, he kept playing career favorite utilityman Ronald Torreyes over Alec Bohm, arguably the best positional prospect the organization produced lately.
Anyway, since the consensus is Girardi is better with veteran players, it’s somewhat surprising he failed so badly with a team that has almost all veterans.
A few recent in-game moves also backfired badly. Replacing Castellanos two straight days with the ultra light-hitting Roman Quinn in hopes of protecting a slim lead was an “E” on the manager. Quinn twice wound up batting following intentional walks to Harper with men on in extras and predictably struck out both times.
Joe Girardi was unable to convince fans he cared.Corey SipkinDombrowski ended any chance of Girardi pulling the Castellanos-Quinn switch a third time when he designated Quinn for assignment. Then a day later Dombrowski took the more drastic step of changing managers and installing well-liked Girardi lieutenant Rob Thomson in Girardi’s stead on an interim basis.
The general feeling is Thomson may get the year to pull off a major upset and get the Phillies into the playoffs. If he can’t, expect another search involving big names again.
It’s interesting to note Girardi’s final defeats came to Showalter and his Philly predecessor Gabe Kapler, who was liked even less there. Kapler wound up winning Manager of the Year for the Giants the year after his Philly firing in San Francisco, a town he fits better.
As it turns out, Showalter or Baker, now vying for pennants in Houston and Queens, would have made better choices. Baker in particular is said to have charmed everyone in the Philly interviews. But Phillies ownership made what was considered the safe and logical call in hiring Girardi. And it backfired spectacularly.
