Joe Girardi’s firing is a reminder that sometimes the obvious answer is the correct one.
The Phillies went on an offseason spending spree, pushing their payroll north of $200 million. And now they are 22-29, sitting 12 games behind the Mets in the National League East. They haven’t just been bad, either — they’ve been embarrassing. And when all of those things happen to a team whose manager is in a contract year and wasn’t hired by the front office boss, what seems obvious often is just that.
In hindsight, Girardi was always going to take the fall for this miserable failure in Philadelphia.