The Yankees Have An Interesting Plan To Ensure Their New Manager Can Handle NYC Pressure


The New York Yankees shocked the baseball world when they parted ways with manager Joe Girardi just days after the Yankees exited the 2017 MLB Playoffs. Girardi had a .562 win percentage as the manager of the Yankees from 2008 to 2017, and he brought New York the 2009 World Series Championship.

New York is the most populated city in the United States. The New York Yankees are the #2 most valuable sports team in the ENTIRE WORLD (valued at $3.7 billion), sandwiched between the Dallas Cowboys at #1 ($4.2 billion) and Manchester United at #3 ($3.69 billion). Every member of the New York Yankees organization is constantly under scrutiny from the local and national media because NYC’s also the media capital of America. Managing the Yankees comes with a spotlight unlike any other position in baseball.

Joe Girardi handled the spotlight well, and the Yankees want to ensure that whoever they fill the manager’s position with can handle it just as smoothly. According to John Patrick Pullen at Fortune, in order to make sure their potential candidates can deal with the media pressure they’ve enacted an interesting plan to test the candidates:

being the New York skipper isn’t for everyone—if the players or fans don’t eat you alive, the media will. As a result, the Bronx Bombers are instituting a new step in their interview process: All candidates will meet with news media after being interviewed by the team.
While no doubt good for off-season ratings on the Yankees’ YES Network, this move is something that more teams are doing as they look for the best fit to lead their teams. The thought is that it takes a certain kind of person to manage in cities like New York, and if candidates can’t take the heat during the hot stove season, there’s no way they’ll survive baseball’s dog days of summer.(via)

I’ll be SHOCKED if A-Rod doesn’t get this job. I don’t know nearly enough about his presence in the locker room and ability to coach and inspire players, but it seems like a lot of people in the know are saying A-Rod’s the man for the position. He can handle the NYC pressure unlike anyone else and he was part of the New York Yankees organization for quite some time. He’s a logical fit. The only way I see this job not going to A-Rod is if Alex is at all worried about the potential of failure tarnishing his career already marked by a huge steroids asterisk.

[h/t Fortune]