Joe Girardi seems to be emerging as the front-runner for the manager's job. Mike Berardino reports that the Yankees have given Girardi permission to interview for the job. In case you had forgotten, like I had, McKeon wanted to add Girardi to the staff before the 05 season as a bench coach. The idea at the time was to make Girardi the manager-in-waiting. Apparently Joe didn't have to suffer through the summer heat down here to hold that title.
It's not a done deal though. There are other candidates. Interestingly, Ken Macha may be one of those candidates. Previously I was under the impression that Macha, formerly of the A's and a strong candidate for this year's AL Manager of the Year award, had his heart set on the Pirates job (as he's a Pittsburgh area native), but that's apparently not the case.
I'm not even going to start getting my hopes up for Lou Pinella. Pinella is likely either uninterested or unaffordable.
Speaking of candidates, isn't there are rule that minorities need to at least be considered for managerial openings? The Marlins have been reprimanded in the past for not considering minorities (they were fined $250,000 by Commissioner Selig after hiring McKeon in 2003). Can Dave Dombrowski and the Tigers escape such punishment with their quick hiring of Jim Leyland? Alan Trammell was only fired the day prior. It's hard to believe that anyone else was seriously considered.