Manager/Front Office Notes: Girardi, Young

We’ve seen ample managerial turnover this season, with eight clubs looking to replace their dugout leaders. We’ll check in on some news on that front as we await tonight’s Game 2 of the ALCS:

• Joel Sherman of the New York Post examines the status of Joe Girardi, who seems likely to find a managerial job two years after concluding a successful decade-long run with the Yankees. He has already interviewed with the Mets and Cubs and is reportedly near the top of the Phillies’ wish list as well. Sherman’s report only adds to Girardi’s odds of getting a job somewhere, as the reporter has “a sense…someone will have to decisively win the interview process for the Mets’ first choice not to be Girardi.” Girardi to Queens is hardly a foregone conclusion; it’s possible another candidate will indeed turn Mets’ executives’ heads, and Girardi himself could find Philadelphia a more desirable opportunity, Sherman explains, especially in light of his “strong relationship” with Phillies’ team president Andy MacPhail.
• More from Sherman, who predicts the league will see increased front office turnover at this time next year in a separate piece. As he points out, the eight departing managers (five of whom were fired, while a sixth didn’t have his expiring contract renewed) dwarf the one outgoing baseball operations head, Dave Dombrowski, who was fired as Red Sox’s president of baseball operations last month. Sherman hears from one team executive who predicts a “GM purge” in twelve months time. It’s impossible to know for certain which front office people could find themselves on the hot seat so far out. (Imagine someone telling you last November, fresh off Boston’s World Series title, Dombrowski would be the top executive to be let go in 2019). Nevertheless, Sherman takes a stab at identifying some potential front offices in flux if things don’t turn around in the coming months.
• Michael Young is on the radar for some teams looking for a manager, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. The former Rangers’ franchise player is currently a special assistant to Texas GM Jon Daniels, one of handful of notable former players serving in that role. Young, 42, has no managerial experience at any level, although that hasn’t stopped some recently-retired former players from getting a shot to lead a big league club. He has also banked a half-decade of front office work since hanging up the spikes, so there’s reason to believe Young’s familiar with the data that has swept the game in recent years. However, Heyman adds that Young’s friends indicate he’s not certain he wants to pursue a managerial position just yet, so he may be a more interesting candidate to follow in future hiring cycles than in the next few weeks.