Entering his tenth season as Yankees manager, Joe Girardi‘s contract is set to expire at the end of 2017. As expected, Hal Steinbrenner told reporters he has no plans to extend Girardi mid-season.
“We love Joe,” Steinbrenner told the Daily News. “Joe is one of many people who work in this organization who have contracts. And I treat all of them the same. I don’t deal with it until the contract is close to up or up. We’ve just got too many other things to focus on, and his situation and he knows that it was no different than 3-4 years ago. I’m sure we’ll be talking maybe towards the end of the year, but right now there’s a lot more things to be worried about than that.”
Hired in 2008, Girardi is the sixth-winningest manager in Yankees history with 819 wins. He managed the Yankees to a 2009 World Series victory over the Philadelphia Phillies and brought them back to the ALCS in 2010 and 2012. In the years since, Girardi has been praised for continuing to get the most out his players and keeping the Yankees above .500 despite injuries and a roster in flux.
Girardi might be facing his biggest managerial test yet, as the Yankees enter spring training as a team in transition. After selling at last year’s trade deadline, the team is committed to developing their top prospects while still contending for a championship. This will be the youngest roster Girardi has ever managed in New York, as Gary Sanchez, Greg Bird, and Aaron Judge are expected to fill the roles once occupied by Brian McCann, Mark Teixeira, and Carlos Beltran.
Now 52, Girardi is still a fairly young manager and recently expressed his desire to manage the Yankees past 2017. As Steinbrenner stated, the Yankees are still very fond of Girardi and in all likelihood will ask him to return.
