Joe Girardi hasn’t managed a Major League Baseball team since leading the New York Yankees to a 91-71 record and advancing to the American League Champion Series in 2017.
The Yanks were defeated by the Houston Astros, and New York decided it was going to move on from Girardi after his contract expired that October.
But after a two-year absence, Girardi is ready to get back on the bench.
The 54-year-old joined Chicago’s 670 The Score on Wednesday and was asked if he had any interest in the Chicago Cubs’ open position with Joe Maddon getting the boot.
“When you look at managing in Major League Baseball, there are only so many jobs,” Girardi said on the “Mully & Haugh Show,” as transcribed by 670thescore.radio.com. “So obviously anything that comes across your desk, you’re going to be interested in. You can’t just go to another city and say, ‘I’m going to be an orthopedic surgeon here.’ You can’t do anything like that. So there’s 30 jobs. There’s obviously 10 teams in the playoffs, so those jobs probably aren’t open. You start to look at the other job available, and obviously I have a lot of ties to Chicago. Any job out there is going to interest me, because I would like to manage again.”
Girardi certainly has a successful résumé, particularly with the Yankees when he managed the club to a World Series and six postseason appearances.
Could he and former rival John Farrell both find jobs this offseason? Only time will tell.