When the Phillies hired Joe Girardi to fix their forever-.500 problem, the runners-up in their high-powered managerial derby were Dusty Baker and Buck Showalter, each of whom has a chance to win a fourth Manager of the Year award with another team. 

Give the Phillies this: They identified three established and great baseball minds, and had a 67 percent chance to get it right. 

Alas, they blew it. 

Girardi’s firing on Friday, two-plus seasons into his dreadful Phillies tenure, was only surprising in that it came less than one-third into their season from hell. 

A manager with Girardi’s pedigree often will be given more rope with which to hang himself or pull off that turnaround miracle. But Phillies baseball president Dave Dombrowski isn’t afraid to act — he once fired Phil Garner six losses into a historically dreadful Tigers season. And in this case, Girardi wasn’t Dombrowski’s mistake. 

Team higher-ups want to give themselves a shot this season, and while it looks like a long one, a big change like this is probably their best hope. 

Girardi looked like a solid fit when he went to Philadelphia to take over a veteran team that seemed to be underachieving and appeared only a piece or two away from contending. As it turns out, Girardi was not that piece. 

He knows the game, but not that city. The 22-29 record this season, plus the lifelessness of the team and a couple of questionable recent moves, are what did him in. But don’t think his own mostly emotionless demeanor didn’t hurt him, too. 

Phillies fans are fanatical, and radio airwaves there, as influential as anywhere, were running about 100 to 1 against. Fans who suggested Girardi didn’t care don’t know the man who bleeds losses from his days as Northwestern Joe through the Rockies, Cubs, Yankees and Marlins. He just needed to show he cared. Strangely, he seemed not to get that. 

If you’re going to lose — and he lost a lot more than anyone figured as he finishes his Phillies tenure nine games under .500 after continuing complaints before he arrived the team was stuck in neutral — at least show some anger. Or maybe a little charm. 

But that wasn’t Girardi’s game. While he tried with the media — and is very good as a broadcaster himself — he comes off as condescending, which doesn’t help his cause. 

But let’s not kid ourselves. He just didn’t win enough. 

As flawed as the Phillies are, they do have some great strengths, and should be better than this. 

As one Phillies person put it, “Something had to be done to spark the team.” 

Phillies ownership, led by managing partner John Middleton, spent liberally to try to change their forever-.500 narrative. They doled out $330 million for superstar Bryce Harper, spent $118 million on talented starter Zack Wheeler, $115.3 million on catcher J.T. Realmuto, then another $179 million on Nick Castellanos and Kyle Schwarber, bookend corner outfielders with pop. By free-agent standards, they have generally delivered. Wheeler led the NL in WAR last year and Harper won his second MVP trophy. 

Thanks to Harper’s all-world season, the Phillies hung around the NL East race until the final weekend last year. But ultimately, they again finished about .500 (82-80), causing Phillies higher-ups to defer a decision on Girardi’s option, putting him on notice. 

The roster seems to be an experiment: Can great offense counteract terrible defense? But Girardi again struggled to get the most out of it. 

With the Yankees, Girardi got a lot out of young players, such as Gary Sanchez, but the reputation remains that he’s much better with veterans. Oddly last year, he kept playing career utilityman Ronald Torreyes over Alec Bohm, arguably the best positional prospect the organization has produced lately. 

Anyway, since the consensus is that Girardi is better with veteran players, it’s somewhat surprising he failed so badly with a team that has almost all veterans. 

A few recent in-game moves also backfired badly. Replacing Castellanos two straight days with the ultra-light-hitting Roman Quinn in hopes of protecting a slim lead was an “E” on the manager. Quinn twice wound up batting following intentional walks to Harper with men on in extra innings and predictably struck out both times. 

Dombrowski ended any chance of Girardi pulling the Castellanos-Quinn switch a third time when he designated Quinn for assignment. A day later, Dombrowski took the more drastic step of changing managers and installing well-liked Girardi lieutenant Rob Thomson on an interim basis. 

The general feeling is Thomson may get the rest of the season to pull off a major upset and get the Phillies into the playoffs. If he can’t, expect another search involving big names. 

It’s interesting to note Girardi’s final defeats came against Showalter and his Philly predecessor, Gabe Kapler, who was liked even less there. Kapler wound up winning Manager of the Year in 2021 (the year after his Philly firing) in San Francisco, a town he fits better. 

As it turns out, Showalter or Baker, now vying for pennants in Queens and Houston, respectively, would have made better choices. Baker, in particular, is said to have charmed everyone in his Phillies interviews. But ownership made what was considered the safe and logical call in hiring Girardi. And it backfired spectacularly.