Report: Former Phillies, Yankees manager turns down college gig

Brandon Helwig, who covers UCF for the Rivals Network, reported that Girardi's decision was a surprise move, after he "met with UCF officials on campus Wednesday."

The now-58-year-old's big league playing career spanned from 1989-2003 and included stops with the Chicago Cubs, Colorado Rockies, New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals. Girardi worked television broadcasts for the Bronx Bombers on the YES Network in 2004, and in 2005, he was hired as their bench coach.

He earned the NL Manager of the Year award during his first and only year at the helm of the then-Florida Marlins in 2006, before he rejoined the Yankees as their manager from 2008-17. Girardi helped lead the franchise to their most recent World Series title in 2009.

Per Helwig, Girardi and his family moved to Florida after the one-time All-Star was let go by the New York Yankees as manager following the 2017 season.

"He spent 2018 and 2019 as an analyst at MLB Network while also coaching his high-school age son in travel baseball," Helwig wrote.

Girardi managed the Philadelphia Phillies for two-plus seasons from 2020-22, before being fired last June. The Phillies ended up having a monster second half last season and made it to the World Series under Rob Thomson.

Since departing Philadelphia, Girardi has worked in the Cubs broadcast booth as an analyst for Marquee Sports.

Per Helwig, while the former backstop has never coached below the MLB level, Girardi was "intrigued by the idea of coaching college baseball" and had a "keen eye on the UCF job."

"Those roots can be traced to his two summers working with young players in the Florida Travel Baseball (FTB) organization," Helwig reported.

Helwig also noted that the Northwestern University product attended a UCF baseball game in early 2020 and was close to the family of a player at the time.

Girardi's son, Dante, recently finished his junior baseball season at Florida International University, starting "nearly every game" as an infielder, while his daughter, Lena is "one of the top women's basketball recruits in the Class of 2025 with offers from dozens of schools, UCF included."

According to Helwig, the Knights baseball program has just one conference title (2017) and three NCAA Regional appearances (2011, 2012, 2017) since moving to Conference USA (2006-2013) and later the American Athletic Conference (2014-2023).

UCF will head to the Big 12 this summer.