The Philadelphia Phillies abruptly fired manager Joe Girardi on Friday morning.
On substance, the move makes sense. The team was coming off seven defeats in 10 outings and currently finds itself third in the NL East.
With a 12-game gap between the Phillies and the first-place New York Mets, changes needed to be made. That said, the suddenness of the decision still caught some off guard.
After his fate was decided, Girardi appeared on Sirius XM’s MLB Network Radio and addressed his firing head on.
“There’s a number of reasons we didn’t win,” he said.
“We gave too many extra outs that probably cost us four or five games, maybe even more. At times our bullpen struggled. We had some guys that have much better stuff than the potential that they pitched to, which lead to some games. Some guys got off to slow starts offensively and that happens.
“I think you can overcome sometimes one thing, maybe even two but sometimes when it’s more than that it’s somewhat difficult.”
Still, Girardi had nothing but positive things to say about the Phillies going forward.
“I can look back on this last week where we were 3-7,” he noted. “I think realistically we should have been 7-3. Well, that’s going to fall on me because we weren’t, and I understand that…I just pray that they get better and that they get to the playoffs.”
According to team president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, the decision to get rid of Girardi was solely his.
Philly has not made the playoffs in more than a decade. The hope was that Girardi would change that, but obviously he didn’t. He went 132-141 over the past three years and couldn’t do much to alter the organization’s fortunes.
Between Bryce Harper’s growing unhappiness and chatter regarding how his relationship with the franchise may be deteriorating, the writing was on the wall. Something needed to be done.
It will be interesting to see where the Phillies go from here.
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