Cashman addresses the team-is Girardi in trouble?

Brian Cashman visited the team on the road yesterday, which is never a good sign for a manager’s job security. Pinstripes Post has a recap of what happened:

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So, Cashman alerted ownership, postponed his Scranton trip to see Sergio Mitre, and met with his manager and sat in on a hitters’ meeting (where he didn’t exactly sit on his hands). Cash didn’t do any yelling, Mark Teixeira said, but he got his point across.

“You have to realize, 162 games, sometimes you need a kick in the butt, ” Tex said after tonight’s win, where eight runs were scored after Girardi’s (intentional) ejection, and after the club’s first 15 hitters were set aside.

Tex described Cashman as “a little fired up,” and the GM had already said his point was that his hitters were better than they’d shown, and it was time to show it. Plus, it’s not as if Cashman’s viewpoint was restricted to the GM’s box; he did hit .348 at Catholic University in 1988.

“I’ve never run a company before,” Texeira said. “But if my employees weren’t getting the job done, I might come in and (tell them).”

Cashman did his best to dispel reading anything about Girardi’s job security into this, saying after the meeting that Girardi is doing “an exceptional job”. But actions speak louder than words. At the very least, it tells you that management has questions about how well Girardi communicates to his team. An older and more experienced manager would never agree to something like this, Torre would take the suggestion as a personal affront. But clearly there is a different dynamic with this ownership group and management. It’s represents a trend in modern Baseball, Moneyball teams like the A’s and Red Sox have always had activist management where the manager has many decisions made for him by the front office. People forget now, but Francona was thought of as a puppet who’s job security was constantly questioned before he won a World Series and became bullet-proof in that town.

I’ll be up front about my own feelings about Girardi. I’m a big fan of his. I like his work ethic, his organized, disciplined approach and his desire to win, all of which are in stark contrast to Torre’s latter years in the Bronx. I think firing him would be a huge mistake, especially mid-season. It would also be a tremendous admission that management made a mistake letting Torre go. Girardi is Cashman’s hand-picked successor, so getting rid of him has implications for Brian’s fate as well. The team plays hard for him, and all the comeback/walk off wins this year is evidence of that. He also gets a lot of out the bullpen guys he’s been given, especially last year’s group. He’s a good manager and the team would be in the playoffs City Of The Living Dead film if the season ended today. You could do a LOT worse, and firing him would be a panic move that could sink the season.

But he clearly deserves some criticism for some recent events. A-Rod being allowed to play himself into the ground shows a failure to communicate, or at least get the truth out of a player. Brian Bruney had a similar issue earlier this year, which resulted in multiple DL stints for him. The Yankees will put the 300 mil investment they have in Alex over any manager, and that ‘asset’ was mismanaged for whatever reason. The lack of effort the team showed during the Nats series was also troubling, although in one of those games they get a pass because of the weird 5 1/2 hour rain delay. This team has clearly been in a funk since the Red Sox series. They went in red-hot and that was bound to end, and for it to be followed by a lull is no surprise. Its a long season, and every team will have its ups and downs.

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But for any criticism he deserves for failing to get a player to tell him the truth, he derserves credit for the things he’s done well. Recognizing Joba Chamberlain was hurt on the mound last year in Texas might have saved his career. He was pitching with a shoulder injury that could easily have got worse. Pulling CC Sabathia with the bicep injury the other day (against CCs protest) was proactive and could also have prevented further injury. His spotting the illegal lineup change in Florida is something many other managers would have missed. As with any manager, Girardi’s a mixed bag. But I think the pros FAR outweigh the cons with him. If the A-Rod situation was to sink him, then he would have been fired for not being a mind reader.