Joe Girardi, Meet Buck Showalter

Man, you have to feel for manager Joe Girardi right now, don’t you? The man that has managed the New York Yankees for the last ten seasons was not offered a contract after the 2017 season leading the team to hire Aaron Boone, an inexperienced manager, to lead the Baby Bombers. Those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it and this entire situation seems awfully familiar to me. Remember when, like Girardi, Buck Showalter managed through some bad seasons in New York only to be fired a season before the team began a dynasty? Does this not have the same feel to it? Does Girardi not seem like he is following the same pattern as Showalter did, and does that make Boone the next coming of “Clueless Joe?”

The Yankees were fresh off a trip to the American League Division Series as a Wild Card team in 1995 when Showalter was not brought back for the 1996 season. Joe Girardi led the Wild Card winning Yankees to the American League Championship Series in 2017 and was within one game of the 2017 World Series. In 1996 the Yankees did not bring back Showalter and brought in a surprising choice for manager in Joe Torre. See the offseason and the Aaron Boone signing for similarities in the story, they happened. The 1995 Yankees were young and had a promising group of players coming through the farm system including Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera and eventually Jorge Posada. The 2018 Yankees? You know the names. Gleyber Torres, Miguel Andujar, Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, Luis Severino, Tyler Austin and others.

The Yankees had to sacrifice Showalter in order to get Torre, and that led to a dynasty. Whether it would have led to a dynasty with Showalter running things is a discussion for another day. Will the sacrifice of Girardi lead to another dynasty under Aaron Boone? Stay tuned, but how could it not?