Will Yankees’ Coaching Staff Pay The Price For 2014 Futility?
By Billy Brost
As of this moment, all is calm. New York Yankees’ manager Joe Girardi‘s job appears to be safe, as he just completed the second year, of a four-year contract. There are even reports of GM Brian Cashman getting a new deal as a reward for a second straight season without playoff baseball in the Bronx–the third such season since the Joe Torre Era ended at the conclusion of the 2007 season. Several million dollars will be coming off the books, while a bunch will be returning in the name of Alex Rodriguez. Someone has to pay for such a miserable failure, one that saw the Yankees spend close to half a billion dollars in free agent deals this past off-season, don’t they?
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As has been the case throughout the season, Yankees’ fans, blogs, writers, etc., have questioned how Yankees’ hitting coach Kevin Long still has his job? How does third base coach Rob Thomson still have his job after running the Yankees out of multiple big-innings this year? How does Tony Pena still remain Girardi’s bench coach after failing to help him see what was right in front of both of them all season? It appears that for once, the only coach whose job is secure, is that of Larry Rothschild, who did a phenomenal job this season with a patchwork rotation, one that kept the Yankees in mathematical contention until the final Wednesday of the regular season.
A day after the Yankees’ disappointing season came to an end, manager Joe Girardi spoke to George A. King of the NY Post on the topic:
"“My coaches work their tail ends off and obviously I have a close relationship with all of them…But it’s been 20 hours since we played a game and we haven’t had a chance to sit down and talk about it. They worked extremely hard for me, and we will sit down and talk and a couple of days removed I will sit down and talk to [general manager] Brian [Cashman]. This happens every year, whether we win or lose, that’s the nature of New York and the business.’’ (h/t, George A. King, NY Post)"
Girardi plans to evaluate each of his coaches over the next several days and weeks, and wouldn’t discuss who might stay or go, but one would have to think that one or more of the coaches are going to get cut loose for the disappointing season the Yankees have had. While Long and Thomson have been trusted members of Girardi’s staff for years, nobody is safe when failure rears it’s ugly head in the Bronx. Stay tuned…