Are Joe Girardi's Days As Yankees Manager Over?

There's speculation that Joe Girardi, whose contract as the Yankees manager was over with as of last night, may not return to the team. But that doesn't necessarily mean he'll manage the Chicago Cubs, who Girardi played for for seven seasons. Oh, and Joe is also from the Chicago area.

Could he stay or could he go?

The Cubs currently have Dale Sveum under contract to manage the team through next season. Don't expect that to be a big problem for Theo Epstein, though. Especially when you consider the fact that the Cubs, under Sveum, have gone 127-197 the past two seasons (.392 Winning Percentage), while finishing 5th in the National League Central division both times (thanks to the Astros still being in the NL Central in 2012, the Cubs only finished in last place in 2013).

Not only has Sveum not been getting the job done for the Cubbies, but it's worth pointing out that while one of Girardi's strong points is his use of the bullpen, the National League Chicago club finished 29th out of 30 MLB clubs in terms of relievers WAR (Baseball Reference).

Joe's response to questions concerning his management future was this..

"It comes down to family. They are first. Whatever is best for the group of us, not one individual, not me or just my wife, or just one of my children, whatever is best for us as a group, that’s what we’ll decide to do. And that’s something I put some thought into, and I’m going to have to think about a lot over the next few days, obviously."

For those that think Girardi may just follow the money, Joe also pointed out that dollars won't factor into the decision. So, yet again, the financial might of the Yankees could fail them.

Then again, if that financial might doesn't keep Joe around, some fans would be quite happy about that.