TAMPA — Yankees manager Joe Girardi’s first interview of the spring included an insistence that fewer veterans and more young players won’t change expectations.
“Those expectations don’t change,” the skipper said at Steinbrenner Field on Tuesday, spring training reporting day for Yankees pitchers and catchers. “You look at the clubs that have won recently, a lot of young players with a few veterans mixed in.”
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The Yankees may need to overachieve in 2017 to save Girardi’s job because he’s entering the final year of a four-year, $13-million contract extension that was finalized in October 2013.
How will this effect Girardi on and off the field this season?
Will he seek clarify on his status from management?
Girardi tackled those questions near the end of his 26-minute Q & A.
“It doesn’t really impact me,” he said. “I’m going to go do my job the same way and the way that I believe is for me the right way to do it.
“I won’t seek any clarity. They have not extended managers as long as I can remember during the course of a season, so I’ll just go do my job and whatever happens, happens.
“I’m a faithful man and I believe He’s going to put me where he wants me anyway, so let’s just go play it out.”
This will be season 10 for Girardi, who has averaged 91 wins since succeeding Joe Torre starting in 2008.
“God, that’s a long time,” he said.
Girardi has led the Yankees to nine consecutive winning seasons, five postseason berths, three AL East titles and a 2009 World Series championship while building a 819-639 regular-season resume that computes to a .562 win percentage, but his club has made the playoffs just once in last four seasons, a one-and-done Wild Card game in 2015.
The Yankees won’t be favorites to be a playoff game again this season either, so the pressure could be on.
No matter, Girardi says he expects to keep his job into 2018 and beyond.
“Yeah, I do,” he said “I don’t envision myself doing anything different, and maybe that’s why I don’t really think that much about it. So it’s what I know. This is what I’ve done for a long time and we’ll just play it out.”
Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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