MLB

Girardi stays A-way from sticky situation

BALTIMORE — Joe Girardi has four World Series rings, a National League Manager of the Year trophy and an All-Star Game selection on his resume. Yet it’s possible that, when we look back at his career, another accomplishment will stand out the most.

He has managed Alex Rodriguez for six seasons now and there’s nary a scratch to show for it.

As the Yankees’ perpetually rocky working relationship with A-Rod has plummeted to new lows this past week, their manager has earned points by simply staying out of the fray.

“I don’t think it’s really hard to stay out of it,” Girardi said yesterday, before the Yankees suffered their fifth straight loss, 4-2 to the Orioles at Camden Yards. “I don’t think I was really ever involved with it, in a sense. For me to get involved, I’d have to say something that would trigger it. And that’s easy for me not to do.”

Girardi has bigger worries than whether A-Rod announces his own rehabilitation schedule, as his team, now 42-39 at the halfway mark, is flailing as it hopes to get A-Rod, Francisco Cervelli, Curtis Granderson and Derek Jeter back off the disabled list. They’ll try to capitalize on a four-game set in Minnesota, starting tonight, against the lousy Twins.

It’s true that Girardi hasn’t needed to even look at A-Rod since the beleaguered third baseman headed to Tampa in early May to rehabilitate his surgically repaired left hip. It’s also true that Yankees general manager Brian Cashman has no problem being the bad cop, laying down the law as he did this past week _ too profanely, as he later conceded _ and letting Girardi maintain somewhat positive relations with his player.

Nevertheless, look at all the baseball people who wear scars from their associations with A-Rod: Cashman’s “Shut the ___ up” comment to ESPN New York will go down as one of his most memorable utterances. Hal and Hank Steinbrenner committed the 10 years and $275 million to A-Rod when they could have just walked away from the free agent. Joe Torre couldn’t stand managing A-Rod, as he made clear in his 2009 book “The Yankee Years.” Jeter’s captaincy took a hit, as has Robinson Cano’s earning potential.

Outside the Yankees, current Orioles manager Buck Showalter took over the Rangers in 2003 and couldn’t want to unload his best player. The man who hired Showalter in Texas, Tom Hicks, is remembered most in the Lone Star State for giving A-Rod the earth-shattering, 10-year, $252-million contract. And the man who negotiated that contract, Scott Boras, is now one of countless people who can refer to themselves as a “former Alex Rodriguez employee.”

Girardi has avoided such infamy, even surviving last October as A-Rod hit on women in the stands but couldn’t hit the ball, because he has been able to value A-Rod for his assets _ he still might be able to help the Yankees on the field, and his work ethic can’t be questioned _ and shrug off his liabilities, which for efficiency’s sake we’ll summarize here as, “He’s high-maintenance.”

“I think we all have pluses and minuses as people,” Girardi said. “And I think the way people handle pressure is always different. The way people go about their lives and handle it. People say, ‘I understand what you’re going through.’ You don’t, you know?

“I don’t understand what Alex is going through. I don’t understand what Jeets is going through. Because I’m not them. Maybe I’ve been through a similar experience, but I still don’t understand, because I’m wired differently. So I think it’s important; I believe we shouldn’t judge people. I try not to judge people.”

It’s not like Girardi is a naïf when it comes to office politics. In his first managerial gig, 2006 with the Marlins, he went at it with eccentric owner Jeffrey Loria and his front office _ and lost, getting fired after just one season despite winning Manager of the Year. In his current, high-profile job, however, Girardi has succeeded in not getting sucked into any such skirmishes. He has expertly walked the tightrope as a member of management who must form strong bonds with the talent.

“They have to trust me. That’s the bottom line,” Girardi said. “And I think that’s important that you work for that and that you don’t break that trust.

“There’s going to come some incidents, just like in any other family, where you’re going to have some times when things get a little rocky. But you’ve got to work on repairing it, like you do in a family. I’m very careful with my words, because I try not to leave anything up to the interpretation of others.”

Interpreting this current Yankees team, and how to fix it, is trying enough for Girardi.