MLB

Girardi managing to balance Yankees age & egos

BOSTON ­— Joe Girardi hates spring training. Sure there is sun and the pace is less intense and the losses don’t count.

But Girardi just cannot get used to telling players they are not going to make the team. He dreads those meetings.

“Worst part of my job,” he said.

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Yet that is really going to seem minor compared to what will truly be the most miserable part of his employment, when he has his own David Ortiz or Mike Lowell or Jason Varitek or Tim Wakefield. When he has his own legacy-laced champion he has to stop playing regularly because age has begun to corrode effectiveness.

He received a little window into just how ugly that is going to be in the past few days. Neither Jorge Posada nor, especially, Andy Pettitte was thrilled Girardi held them back from playing. But this is about health, not failing performance. Amazingly, the Yankees’ Core Four has retained a high level of excellence at ages normally associated with fades or forced retirements.

But that is today. Even Girardi said he realistically sees what is on the horizon tomorrow: “It obviously is a possibility some day. For all of us, your career comes to an end.”

In the last week, Girardi has had to manage against the wills of three of his most willful players. Mariano Rivera had a sore side and Girardi did not let his closer work in three straight save situations in a sweep of the Orioles. Rivera was available last night, but did not pitch in the Yankees’ 10-3 win over Boston. Posada (calf) pronounced himself ready to start after early batting practice, but did not as Girardi stressed caution.

Pettitte, normally docile and non-controversial, revealed the greatest level of frustration. He offered that he was “not very happy at all” to be pulled from his start Tuesday in Detroit without even being able to throw a bullpen to verify what he was claiming, that his left elbow is no longer bothering him.

Standout veterans such as Rivera, Posada and Pettitte do not become standout veterans unless they play through a lot of aches and minor injuries. They have done it their whole careers and they expect to keep doing it. It is their pride. It is their sense of responsibility to the team. They refuse to make too many concessions to age.

So Girardi must play the disciplinarian parent, to do what he thinks is right rather than what is popular. He knows these veterans are mad. But Girardi keeps talking about the “big picture” and that “they are not 27 or 28 anymore.” He wants them all thriving in September, not sacrificed in May.

“This is an extremely important part of my job,” Girardi said about navigating a season with key veterans.

Last night the Yankees played the first of 17 games in 17 days. He must find places to rest his older stars. That is tricky. But it gets trickier with the inevitability of declining performance. Executives say nothing is more problematic that having to manage a fading star; as Red Sox skipper Terry Francona is experiencing with Ortiz, as an example.

What happens when it is not a minor calf problem for Posada, but lost pop? What happens when Girardi senses a better option to close than Rivera, and not because of injury?

For now, Girardi is saying, the veterans “are mad at the situation, not mad at me.” But what about when Girardi is not protecting them from themselves with injury concerns, but protecting the team from a worse option? When that occurs, cutting a player in spring training is going to feel like the good old days.