Is It Time for the Yankees to Find a Replacement for Joe Girardi?

Expectations are always higher for the New York Yankees, even in a “retooling” year. Therefore, if the Yankees don’t make a significant playoff run, New York could consider finding a new manager this offseason.

Normally, when a major sports franchise has won a championship within the last ten years, the organization and its fans are happy or somewhat content. As for the New York Yankees, eight years without a World Series title or appearance can seem like an eternity.

Just making it to the playoffs is not enough. Just making it to the World Series isn’t enough either. Thanks to the standards put in place by late Yankees owner Mr. George Steinbrenner III, holding up that commissioner’s trophy is the “be all-end all” in Yankeeland.

So that leads to the question that is inevitable at the conclusion of the 2017 MLB season. Whether the Yankees make the playoffs or not; should the Yankees resign Joe Girardi to an extension or look for another manager?

That question arises largely in part because of the Yankees’ recent World Series “drought” or failure to reach the playoffs entirely.

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In Girardi’s ten-year tenure as the Yankees manager, the team has missed the playoffs four times, won more than 90 games four times, clinched three American League Division Titles, and made one World Series appearance which resulted in one World Series Title.

The most recent playoff appearance under Girardi was in 2015 and that was a one-game playoff against the Houston Astros in which the Yankees lost 3-0. When comparing these results to Joe Torre, who Joe Girardi succeeded as Yankees manager, it’s odd to not hear rumblings of Girardi’s job being on the line in the last year of his contract.

Maybe it’s a testament to Hank and Hal Steinbrenner’s style of ownership in comparison to their father, the late great George Steinbrenner III, who was known to be extremely outspoken, strict, and made it known to the media that he expected and demanded excellence from whoever he hired to lead his franchise.

That’s why Yankees fans who have had the privilege of being a fan under “The Boss’s” reign have a hard time understanding, or better yet accepting, Joe Girardi’s job security despite his inconsistency.

Joe Torre, in his first ten years as Yankees manager, led the team to ten straight playoff appearances, four World Series Titles in six World Series appearances, nine American League Division Titles, nine seasons with 90 wins or more, and four seasons with 100 wins or more. Despite having more success than most managers have in a lifetime, he still endured heat from George Steinbrenner if the Yankees failed to achieve deep postseason runs that culminated in World Series Titles.

Now, this isn’t to say that Joe Girardi is a bad manager. However, the team’s inconsistency and his questionable mid-late game choices that have cost the Yankees wins in a tight AL East playoff race cannot be overlooked.

Next: Torreyes Time in the Bronx?

There’s still a lot of baseball left, so hopefully Joe Girardi can rally the troops together for a late season push at another American League East Title and hopefully a successful playoff run that features another World Series Title.

If that doesn’t happen, however, the Steinbrenners will have no choice but to look at other options this offseason. It’s World Series or bust in Yankeeland.

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