Categories: Former Phillies News

Former Phillies manager Joe Girardi hired by YES Network

Former Philadelphia Phillies manager Joe Girardi has a new media gig for the 2024 season, as he’ll be one of the color commentators on the YES Network for New York Yankees games working with play-by-player Michael Kay.

It will mark Girardi’s third stint with the team-owned regional sports network, as he previously had worked with YES during the 2004 and 2007 seasons.

Girardi, of course, has a lengthy history with the Yankees organization, having played for them as a catcher from 1996-1999. Girardi was the bench coach for the Yankees in 2005, working under Hall of Fame manager Joe Torre. He won NL Manager of the Year in 2006 with the Florida Marlins, but was fired after a falling out with owner Jeffrey Loria. He was named the successor to Torre as Yankees skipper in 2008, a position that he ultimately held for a decade. Girardi’s Yankees defeated the Phillies in six games in the 2009 World Series.

Obviously, Girardi’s stint with the Phillies wasn’t nearly as fruitful. In parts of three seasons as the team’s manager, Girardi’s teams posted a 132-141 (.484) record. He was fired on June 3, 2022, and replaced by his long-time staffer, Rob Thomson. Since Girardi’s firing, the Phillies are 155-118 (.568). Awful bullpen construction and having to navigate the team through a pandemic certainly hurt Girardi’s chances to be successful. But the vast improvement under Thomson is quite the indictment of the job Girardi was doing. Girardi hasn’t spoken publicly about his disappointing tenure with the Phillies or their subsequent success since his dismissal.

Joe Girardi managed the Phillies for parts of three years. (John Adams/Icon Sportswire)

While he indicated in August of 2022 that he would like to manage again, there’s no evidence that the 59-year-old has garnered any interest for MLB vacancies since being let go by the Phillies. Perhaps he’ll get back into coaching on someone else’s staff at some point, but it appears unlikely he ever manages at the MLB level again. Girardi was offered the coaching job at the University of Central Florida

last summer, but decided to decline it.

Girardi — a native of Peoria, Illinois — became a part-time game analyst for Chicago Cubs broadcasts on Marquee Sports Network shortly after being fired by the Phillies. Twice a Cub, Girardi intends to continue in his color commentator role on Cubs broadcasts in addition to his job with YES Network, according to Jack Curry.