The Phillies did something on Friday that a number of fans have been clamoring for: they moved on from manager Joe Girardi.
Girardi, who took over in 2020 as the team's skipper following the Gabe Kapler experiment, was largely underwhelming during his two-plus year run in Philadelphia.
READ MORE: Phillies fire manager Joe Girardi after two-plus years
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A number of his decisions - lineup construction, pitcher management, and the like - were fairly questionable during his time here, but a good chunk of the blame also likely falls in the "out of his control" pile when it comes to finding quality defensive talent and sufficient bullpen arms.
Ultimately though, as the Phillies slog through another lackluster season during Bryce Harper's prime, something had to be done.
And it's safe to say Phils fans were waiting on this day, because their reactions when the news broke were pretty dang good:
That's a lot of opinions!
I feel like the general fan consensus is this:
MLB
No, this move won't fix the Phillies. No, Joe Girardi wasn't the sole problem (or maybe even the main problem) with this team. Yes, Girardi was replaceable-to-bad during his time here. And yes, this move basically had to happen to try and kickstart a turnaround before this entire season is lost.
Pretty reasonable conclusions, just charged with a lot of emotion from a fanbase absolutely sick of watching bad/boring baseball.
We'll see if anything changes with Rob Thomson as interim manager. Does the squad wake up? Do they continue to slide into mediocrity? It should be an interesting next four months.
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