ORLANDO, Fla. — As he searches for the future Yankees manager, Brian Cashman could find plenty of past Yankees managers at the general managers’ meetings.
There, accompanying commissioner Rob Manfred, was Joe Torre. There, cracking a joke as he strolled through the Waldorf Astoria lobby, was Buck Showalter.
And there was … Joe Girardi?
Yes, the now-former Yankees skipper made his first appearance in a baseball setting since his surprising dismissal, attending a 3½-hour-long meeting (along with Torre and Showalter) of Major League Baseball’s Competition Committee. His next appearance in a baseball setting, Girardi strongly hinted, will be as a broadcaster, with movement on that front likely to begin in earnest after Thanksgiving.
“I think that’s a good possibility, yes,” Girardi said, when asked about returning to the announcing career he started in 2004 and 2007.
That’s “yes,” not “YES,” as Girardi said he wouldn’t want to work for the Yankees’ network even if executives there offered him a job.
“I would probably do more of a national thing, because I think [working for YES] would be kind of strange,” he said. Particularly since it’s evident Girardi still carries raw feelings from Cashman’s decision to go in a different direction after 10 years on the job.
“He has his reasons. He’s the decision-maker,” Girardi said. “He wanted something different, so I’m not coming back.”
Though Cashman indicated communication wound up as Girardi’s biggest shortcoming, Girardi declined to talk about what caused his downfall.
“I don’t worry about that,” he said. “I’m one that’s pretty aware of what happens and what goes on inside a clubhouse.”
On not being retained, he said, “It’s life. You understand that you have to move on. You invest a lot of time there and I have a lot of great memories there, but it’s part of life. When you take a job as a manager, you know that this is a possibility. And you have to deal with this. You also get to deal with the other side, the excitement of being hired. I’ve been on both sides.”
He will retain his spot on the committee, he said, “because I care so much about the game. There’s a lot of things we talk about in that room that I think are really interesting. I don’t think it’s bad to have an idea of what’s going on, either.”
Of his commitment to the committee, Girardi said, “I’m going to stay with it as long as they want me.” Then he added, with a smile and a note of self-deprecation: “It’s kind of what I do.”