Brian Cashman, the Yankees general manager who hired Joe Girardi and then fired him 10 years later, said he was asked repeatedly this offseason about the new Phillies manager by teams searching to fill their manager vacancies.
"To me, if you're going to marketplace and he was available in the marketplace, you can find no better candidate," Cashman said of Girardi on Thursday afternoon at a news conference at Yankee Stadium. "He's going to represent their franchise well. He's going to be all in, as you all know. Whoever has covered him has seen the passion and fire that he possesses in that dugout. And he's been a winner."
Girardi managed the Yankees for 10 seasons after playing four seasons in the Bronx. He won three World Series as the team's catcher and then managed them to their most recent crown in 2009. Girardi replaced Joe Torre before the 2008 season, beating out candidates that included Don Mattingly and Tony Pena. Only five managers, four of which are Hall of Famers, have managed more games for the Yankees than Girardi.
"They got a great one," Cashman said. "Joe was here for 10 years for a reason."
New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman walks on the field during a baseball team workout Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019, at Yankee Stadium in New York. Yankees will host the Minnesota Twins in the first game of an American League Division Series on Friday. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
After firing Girardi following the 2017 season, Cashman called Girardi an "exceptional manager," but was not pleased with the manager's "connectivity and communication" with players. The Yankees had come within a win that season of reaching the World Series, but Girardi's time had run out in New York after 10 seasons. It was time for a new and fresh voice, Cashman said then.
Now the Phillies look to Girardi as their new voice.
"He had a massively successful run here," Cashman said. "One of the things that gravitated me to Joe back then was that I had a great relationship with him when he was a player. I was a general manager here when he was a player. He coached for me and then ultimately managed for me. He's been a winner his entire career and I would expect nothing but the same will continue in Philadelphia. I wish him luck. I thought they had a great selection and I'd rather it not be in the American League East."
