Joe Girardi tells 670 The Score in Chicago that, sure, he’d listen if the Cubs gave him a call. Actually, he’d listen if any team gave him a call:
“When you look at managing in Major League Baseball, there are only so many jobs, so obviously anything that comes across your desk, you’re going to be interested in . . . obviously I have a lot of ties to Chicago [but] any job out there is going to interest me, because I would like to manage again . . . I’ve made it known that I would like to manage again, so you kind of wait and see what happens in this process. There’s a lot of jobs open, more than I remember in the past, and there could be some more. So we’ll see what happens.”
I read that not as desperate but matter-of-fact. And pretty reasonable. Girardi was not everyone’s cup of tea as the Yankees manager — he had some issues with some of the club’s younger players towards the end there — but he was obviously successful in New York and, unlike a lot of today’s newer breed of inexperienced managers, is pretty adept at handling a bullpen. Even with today’s preference for recently-retired players who are seen more as men tasked with carrying out the front office’s orders as opposed to, you know, managing, it’d be strange if Girardi never got another shot at this.
But will he in Chicago? He would not say in the interview if he’d been contacted. On Monday Theo Epstein confirmed that another former Cubs catcher, David Ross, was in the mix, as are first base coach Will Venable and bench coach Mark Loretta. Epstein also said, however, that a coach who is currently on a postseason staff is a potential candidate. He also noted that a tie to the Cubs, like Ross, Venable, Loretta and Joe Girardi all have, is not a prerequisite for the job.
If I had to guess I’d say that the Cubs would not tab Girardi, simply because “experienced manager who had success elsewhere” describes the guy they just let go and clubs often like to change direction when they hire a new guy. But I do think Girardi deserves a shot someplace else based on his track record. We’ll see.
