Why the Phillies are betting on Girardi
PHILADELPHIA – When the Phillies fired Gabe Kapler more than two weeks ago, there were plenty of interesting managerial candidates on the market.
Some were young. Some were old. Some had experience. Some didn’t.
The Phillies, bucking a trend around Major League Baseball, focused their attention on three candidates 55 or older.
While much of the league is trying to find the next young, analytical mind to lead a clubhouse, the Phillies, two years after doing just that, were fixated on the opposite.
Joe Girardi, 55, and with 11 seasons under his belt as a manager, beat out Buck Showalter, 63, and Dusty Baker, 70, to become the 55th manager in franchise history.
Girardi, of course, replaced Kapler, whom the Phillies fired on Oct. 10 after a 161-163 record in two seasons as manager. Owner John Middleton wasn’t happy with the direction the Phillies were going under Kapler’s leadership.
The rebuild led by general manager Matt Klentak, now four years in the making, was ready to accelerate, and Middleton wanted a new, more experienced voice, one with a résumé that looked something like 910710 in 10 seasons with the Yankees.
On Oct. 28, Girardi sat at a podium next to Klentak inside Pass and Stow, the bar and restaurant attached to Citizens Bank Park, and told stories about playing against the Phillies, winning in New York, growing up near Chicago, getting Ryan Howard to sign a ball for his son in 2006 and how he’ll use math to inform decisions he makes.
What stood out above all else, though, was how critical Girardi’s experience winning the World Series in 2009 in the New York market meant to the Phillies, who had Girardi meet with 25 different people during his second interview with the club.
“Sometimes,” Klentak said, “where you are as an organization will dictate the type of leadership that you want.”
When Klentak inherited manager Pete Mackanin in 2015, it was understood the Phillies weren’t going to win many games, Klentak said. The Phillies were dedicating resources to the behind-the-scenes structuring of the team to try to position the organization for a fruitful future.
“When that young group of players at the end of 2017 came up and started to show flashes that this team was ready to compete and grow at the major league level, that’s when we thought it was time to make that push at the big league level,” Klentak said. “And that’s when we opted to go with Kap, who was a first-time manager, to really help us push and catch up and make ground at the major league level. I think we did.”
Just not quite enough. A more experienced leader was needed.
“No questions asked, it is time to win right now,” Klentak said. “That lends itself to bringing in a guy who has done that, who has won in the toughest markets with the pressures and has hoisted that World Series trophy over his head. I think that’s all what led us to Joe and I think that’s by and large why we placed such a premium on prior experience.”
Knowing what the Phillies were looking for – in this case, experience – made the interview process easier.
“What is helpful when you bring in somebody like Joe Girardi, you don’t have to ask him how he would do it,” Klentak said. “You can ask him how he did do it. You can look back at that and you can test that. You can ask other people how he did those things.”
So you can ask Girardi, for example, what it’s like working with a player like Alex Rodriguez, whose 10-year, $252 million contract is trumped by Bryce Harper’s $330 million deal in Philly that has 12 more years to go.
“Alex really wanted to win and no one worked harder than
Alex,” Girardi said. “And from my understanding that’s Bryce. So there’s a reason you get to be a superstar. You’re talented, but talent alone is not going to allow you to play at a really high level on a daily basis, year after year after year. It’s that work ethic, and I watch Bryce. Bryce plays hard, I mean really hard. So to me those things are similar.”
Girardi is experienced enough, too, to have this answer, when asked how he likes deploying a bullpen (which may or may not have been a shot at Kapler): “I have some steadfast rules on how I use the bullpen because I don’t want bullpen pieces to go on the DL. So for me some of the things that I did in New York, it usually wasn’t until the month of September that I would think of using a guy three days in a row because I would want them to remain healthy.
“When bullpen pieces start coming off the board ... your team weakens significantly.”
The unhealthy bullpen, of course, was a big reason the Phillies floundered in 2019.
Girardi said he’s spoken with “20 to 22” of the players so far. “I even texted a young man who was in Indonesia,” he said. He’s also spoken to the coaches that remain on staff after Kapler’s departure. There’s still a vacancy at pitching coach and hitting coach.
The Yankees on Oct. 28 fired pitching coach Larry Rothschild, who Girardi worked with. A reunion would make sense.
Girardi talked on the phone a few days ago with Rhys Hoskins, who was in attendance with his fiancée, Jayme Bermudez, just days before their wedding.
Will Girardi’s arrival provide a jolt to the clubhouse? What difference will Girardi make?
“I think, and this has nothing to do with who Gabe is as a person or what he did as a manager, but it’s the experience,” Hoskins said. “He’s done ‘it.’ And ‘it’ is what we’re all trying to do – win.”
Here was the key follow-up: Will that experience provide Girardi with more respect in the clubhouse?
“I think so,” Hoskins said. “I mean one way to establish respect, obviously, is your credibility, your track record. He has one of the best out there, and we’re excited to be a part of that.”
One of the 25 or so people Girardi spent time with during the interview process was Larry Bowa, the Phillies’ legend who has done his fair share of coaching and is now a front office adviser.
“All three of those guys, I thought, were good baseball guys,” Bowa said of the team’s candidates. “But Joe did separate himself just the way that he handled the fact that he was in New York, (and has) been with a winner.”
Now, after two years away from managing, time he spent with his family and as a baseball analyst, Girardi is a little more than 100 miles south, back in a big market that wants nothing more than to have him replicate his past success.
“I’m well aware of the importance of winning in this town,” Girardi said.