{"id":36573,"date":"2022-06-04T16:31:39","date_gmt":"2022-06-04T16:31:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/phillies-firing-of-joe-girardi-is-the-latest-chapter-in-same-old-story-as-embarrassing-era-drags-on\/"},"modified":"2022-06-04T16:31:39","modified_gmt":"2022-06-04T16:31:39","slug":"phillies-firing-of-joe-girardi-is-the-latest-chapter-in-same-old-story-as-embarrassing-era-drags-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/phillies-firing-of-joe-girardi-is-the-latest-chapter-in-same-old-story-as-embarrassing-era-drags-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Phillies’ firing of Joe Girardi is the latest chapter in same old story as embarrassing era drags on"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Earlier this week, I got a text from a friend in Philadelphia, my childhood home. He asked something that has become a rite of passage, murmured across the Delaware Valley in the weeks after the Eagles wrap up the NFL Draft and the Sixers get bounced from the NBA playoffs. The question marks the arrival of summer. <\/span><\/p>\n

“What’s wrong with the Phillies?” my pal said. <\/span><\/p>\n

He wanted to blame the ownership group of John Middleton. I responded with the standard refrain: Middleton was trying to win – the Phillies went into the season with a franchise-record $ 233 million payroll, according to FanGraphs. The problem, as I outlined in the infinite wisdom of a seasoned ball scribe, was president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski had built a disjointed team that treated fielding like an afterthought to an afterthought to an afterthought. An injury to Bryce Harper further weakened the defense, a unit that could not afford to be weakened. The intensity of manager Joe Girardi might not be the best fit for such a mistake-prone squad. <\/span><\/p>\n

Really, I continued, this was part of a general problem with the franchise. Ruben Amaro Jr. ran the team aground after a marvelous run ended in 2011. His replacement of him, Matt Klentak, failed to resuscitate the franchise. Dombrowski, the next exec up, built Frankenstein’s Roster, ignoring what happened to the good doctor at the end of that story. All the while, the farm system sputtered and the fans suffered. <\/span><\/p>\n

I thought I had made some good points. My friend wasn’t so sure. <\/span><\/p>\n

“Shouldn’t ownership,” he replied, “hire the right people then?” <\/span><\/p>\n

Well. Hard to argue with that. <\/span><\/p>\n

A few days later, the Phillies reshuffled the deck chairs once more. Girardi was out. A temporary replacement, bench coach Rob Thomson, was in. The names on the back of the jerseys change. The story does not.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n Joe Girardi finished with a 132-141 record as Phillies manager. (Rob Tringali \/ Getty Images)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In more than a decade since Ryan Howard tore his left Achilles tendon, tumbling to the grass of Citizens Bank Park for the final out of the 2011 National League Division Series, Phillies ownership has not identified leaders in either baseball operations or the dugout capable of returning the team to the playoffs. For years, the franchise lagged behind its competition in the incorporation of analytics. The farm does not bear fruit. The team has tried tanking and it has tried lavish spending and it has tried to straddle the distance between the two. None of it has worked. <\/span><\/p>\n

The October drought is 10 years long, the second longest in the sport, and looks in danger of entering a second decade in 2022: Girardi got bounced with the team seven games under .500 and 12 behind the Mets in the National League East. It was a familiar scene. Amaro could not sustain the success the franchise experienced from 2007-11. Klentak could not remake the franchise in a more modern image. And Dombrowski’s attempt to microwave a contender out of a collection of designated hitters has been a disaster thus far in 2022. The club has hired multiple managers during that span whom I genuinely cannot remember ever managing, and I get paid to watch Major League Baseball for to living. <\/span><\/p>\n

Girardi was supposed to stop that trend upon his arrival before the 2020 season. He had won a World Series with the Yankees and a Manager of the Year award with the Marlins. He came with a reputation as a martinet, but a competent one, a well-prepared one. Maybe, the thinking went, a fellow who held the reins tightly would be a welcome change of pace after two unsuccessful years with Gabe Kapler as manager. <\/span><\/p>\n

Well, Kapler went to San Francisco and, in his second season, won 107 games in 2021. Girardi will finish his Phillies career with 132 victories spread across parts of three seasons. In an interview Friday with MLB Network Radio, only hours after his dismissal di lui, he declined to point fingers. Philadelphia had won the same number of games as the Cubs and the Pirates, teams that are not actively attempting to contend. He sensed that a recent skid, which included a sweep by the hard-charging Mets, sealed his fate di lui. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI can look back at this last week, when we were 3-7, and I think realistically, we probably should have been 7-3,\u201d Girardi said. \u201cWell, that’s going to fall on me, because we weren’t, and I understand that. I just pray that they get better. And they get to the playoffs. “<\/span><\/p>\n

He understood the score. He had been whacked by the Marlins despite winning award hardware in 2006, and booted by the Yankees despite bringing the club within one victory of another World Series in 2017. This can be a hard business. Many people in baseball consider Girardi a strong manager, but he could not arrest his team’s free fall. <\/span><\/p>\n

Managers are hired to get fired, even if they often get fired for things outside their control. The responsibility for this team’s defensive incompetence – the group entered Friday ranked 25th in defensive runs saved, according to FanGraphs – falls on the executives who built the roster and the owner who authorized it. Same goes for the bullpen, which entered this weekend with a collective 4.15 ERA, No. 20 in the majors, despite a flurry of new arrivals signed by Dombrowski this past winter. <\/span><\/p>\n

These weaknesses were visible in March. The Phillies understood the potential consequences of their offseason strategy, flinging a combined $ 179 million at Nick Castellanos and Kyle Schwarber despite their limited defensive utility and the roster’s lack of coherence. The prospect of socking a few dingers will always hold appeal over the terrifying truth. <\/span><\/p>\n

Except the Phillies have not hit enough to paper over their problems. Schwarber has posted at 112 OPS +. Castellanos is at 111 OPS +. These are nice numbers for super-utility players; Ben Zobrist made a bunch of money with a 113 OPS +. These men, of course, are not Ben Zobrist. Neither is Rhys Hoskins (101 OPS +) nor Alec Bohm (90 OPS +). Harper’s hurt elbow has hampered the outfield defense. Injuries to middle infielders Didi Gregorius and Jean Segura have exposed the roster’s lack of depth – offering yet another example of the farm system’s failings. <\/span><\/p>\n

Before this season, The Athletic<\/i>‘s Keith Law ranked<\/span> the Phillies’ minor-league system at No. 28. The organization has grown used to occupying the lower rungs of these rankings. An inability to draft and develop top-flight talent drove Dombrowski to overhaul the organization’s player-development system last year. Not enough time has passed to determine the efficacy of the changes. But immediate help does not appear to be on the way for the big-league roster.<\/span><\/p>\n

And so Girardi paid the price, just as Kapler and Pete Mackanin and Ryne Sandberg did before him. If Dombrowski, whose four-year, $ 20 million contract runs through 2024, <\/span>cannot rectify this situation, he might meet the same fate as Klentak and Amaro. It is all too familiar for folks in Philadelphia. It’s been a decade since this team had a chance. It might take longer yet. <\/span><\/p>\n

What’s wrong with the Phillies? The same old story. The details and protagonists might be different. The result is not. <\/span><\/p>\n

It’s not like Middleton and his cohorts do not care. They spend. They are trying to win. That separates them from many of their ilk. But caring and competing are not the same. <\/span><\/p>\n

(Top photo of John Middleton in 2019: Kim Klement \/ USA Today)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n