Joe Girardi Talks Yankees Baseball

Joe Girardi spoke with reporters today at the Yankees spring training complex. Most of the conversation was about Alex Rodriguez, but he did get down and chat baseball for a little while.

Girardi said that he doesn’t expect Jorge Posada to start in any spring training games behind the plate until mid-March. He’ll be serving as the team’s DH until then.

Posada is expected to give the Yankees anywhere from 100-110 games from behind the plate. Possibly more depending on his shoulder.

That’s not a great sign as it means Jose Molina will play 50-60 games as the team’s automatic out. That’s an average of about two starts a week for Molina.

Girardi said the team wasn’t as concerned with the health of Mariano Rivera. Rivera is expected to only need about 8-10 innings to get ready for the season.

Melky Cabrera and Brett Gardner, as expected, will compete for the center field job. Plan C is not to use Nick Swisher in center, but instead, Johnny Damon.

Speaking of Swisher, Girardi expects Xavier Nady to be the starting right fielder, but he said Swisher will be given the opportunity to win the job. Added Girardi, “We have seven weeks to decide that.”

Hideki Matsui’s knees were checked out today and it appears that everything is fine...for now.

Finally, Girardi admitted that if the Yankees don’t make the playoffs this season that he is at risk of getting fired. I would agree, but this is not The Boss’ Yankees; this is Hal’s team. Hopefully we don’t get a chance to see how far the apple has fallen off that tree.