Phillies Fire Joe Girardi: How Does Philadelphia Get Back On Track?

Phillies Fire Joe Giradi

The Phillies brought down the hammer on Joe Girardi this morning, firing their third-year manager after a rough start to the season.

After a painfully mediocre 82-80 finish in 2021, the Phillies re-tooled in the offseason. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski handed out big contracts to Nick Castellanos and Kyle Schwarber while adding three established relievers in Brad Hand, Corey Knebel, and Jeurys Familia. Castellanos and Schwarber are both underperforming relative to 2021, and the bullpen sits 21st in ERA after a handful of late-inning meltdowns. The Phillies are 22-29 as a result.

Not all of this falls on Girardi. A World Series champion with the Yankees, Girardi was hired to bring a steady hand after young manager Gabe Kapler was fired in 2019. Girardi thrived working with stars in New York, guiding a win-now Yankees team to a championship in his second season on the job. Many envisioned a similar fate when Girardi took the reins of a high-profile team led by Bryce Harper in 2019. Instead, the Phillies have failed to break their pattern of mediocrity while Kapler thrives in San Francisco.

There is plenty of blame to go around for Dombrowski, but this is the natural result when money is poured into a roster and the results aren’t there. The Phillies have the fourth-highest payroll in baseball but sit behind the Pirates in the standings. The three teams with a higher payroll than the Phillies (Mets, Dodgers, Yankees) hold the league’s top three records. Dombrowski isn’t going to fire himself, and he can’t change the roster dramatically in June. If he felt a change was needed, as he said in his statement today, firing Girardi was virtually the only option.

Where Do The Phillies Go From Here?

The Phillies will move forward with bench coach Rob Thomson as their interim manager. Thomson is a curious choice for a team Dombrowski claims needs a “new voice” – he’s spent 13 years as Girardi’s left-hand man between New York and Philadelphia – but the options are limited midseason.

What Thomson can’t do is generate relievers out of thin air. That’s not his job. But, he can manage the bullpen better than Girardi did by relying just a bit more on the team’s high-leverage relievers. There is no reason for Nick Nelson to lead all Phillies relievers in innings. Some of that may be mop-up duty, but Nelson blew a one-run lead against the Braves last week and faltered again in New York three days later. This feels avoidable. Nelson was abysmal with the Yankees last season. Instead of relying on the Nick Nelson’s of the world, Thomson should trust guys like Brad Hand and Seranthony Dominguez, who have both had strong seasons and look more trustworthy than closer Corey Knebel at the moment.

Thomson won’t be able to suddenly transform the Phillies into a defensive juggernaut. The Phillies knew they weren’t going to play high-level defense in 2022. They were purely built to outscore the other team. Two months in, they’re not outscoring many teams, and they sit 29th in defensive runs saved at -25. These are roster issues that probably can’t be addressed until the offseason.

The Phillies don’t often look like a team that plays with energy, and that’s usually an area where a new manager can have an impact. Interestingly, though, the Yankees looked like they lost energy after Joe Girardi was fired in 2017. Maybe this is more of a players’ issue in Philadelphia. If that’s the case, this mess won’t be cleaned up anytime soon.