MLB rumors: Why ex-Yankee Joe Girardi is the best manager available

The Yankees parted ways with manager Joe Girardi following the Game 7 loss to the Houston Astros in the 2017 American League Championship Series. Teams with managerial openings include the Cincinnati Reds, Toronto Blue Jays and Texas Rangers. Angels manager Mike Scioscia could be on his way out of Los Angeles and the Baltimore Orioles might be done with ex-Yankee Buck Showalter.

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Former Yankees manager Joe Girardi is still looking for his first hit of the season.

The Reds canned their manager in April, but Cincinnati’s short list doesn’t include Girardi.

The Cardinals fired their manager in July, but Saint Louis kept the position in-house.

The Blue Jays are parting ways with John Gibbons, but Toronto is looking to get younger in the dugout.

Mike Scioscia could be on his way out of Los Angeles, and the Angels are looking at an ex-Yankee to replace him, but it’s not Girardi.

Yes, things are not looking good for Girardi, who left the Yankees following their Game 7 loss to the Houston Astros in the 2017 American League Championship Series.

But Fancred’s Jon Heyman thinks any team looking for a manager would be making a mistake by ignoring Girardi.

Heyman put together a list of 57 candidates to be considered for big-league managerial openings, and Girardi is No. 1:

1) Joe Girardi: He put in 10 good years with the Yankees after winning a Manager of the Year award in his only year with the Marlins, where he ultimately clashed with owner Jeffrey Loria. He has a job he’s said to like as an analyst at MLB Network and possibly a standard of pay that’s unlikely to be met in the vast majority of places (he made $4 million with the Yankees by the end). Very likely, there’s only a few places he’d want to manage, with the Cubs (who would seem to be unlikely to have an opening following another successful season, though there are rumors and reports of some tension between Joe Maddon and the front office) thought to be at the top of a very short list. He interviewed and impressed with the Reds when they hired Dusty Baker, though there wasn’t a great belief he’d go there even then, before his decade in New York.

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All hope is not lost for Girardi. The Baltimore Orioles could be ready to move on from Buck Showalter. The Texas Rangers are done with Jeff Banister. So Girardi still has a couple of potential avenues to return to the dugout for 2019.

Mike Rosenstein may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @rosenstein73. Find NJ.com on Facebook.