The 100 Greatest Colorado Rockies: 72 Joe Girardi

We continue our look at the top 100 Colorado Rockies of all time in this article. Here, we look at No. 72 on our list, Joe Girardi.

There is a reason Joe Girardi is one of the longest tenured managers in the majors. He was preparing for a managerial role his entire playing career. That was never more prevalent than with Girardi’s time with the Rockies.

Girardi was drafted by the Cubs in 1986. While he had a very respectable career in Chicago, he was not protected in the 1992 expansion draft and was picked up by the Rockies.

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In 1993, he batted .290 in 86 games. In 1994, he played 93 games in a strike-shortened season and hit .276. He went on to become one of the better hitting catchers in Rockies history.

Earning the starting job on the first Rockies team could not have been any easy task. Girardi guided the guinea pig pitching staff eventually to the playoffs in 1995. To be fair, the offense mostly led them their that year but Girardi managed them efficiently enough not to be a detriment.

That 1995 season was Girardi’s best with the club. He played 125 games behind the plate in Denver which retrospectively seems nearly impossible. He slashed .262/.308/.359 with eight home runs, a career high in a single season. That year he made more than 500 plate appearances, also the most in his career. He is the only Rockies catcher to accomplish this.

Girardi would then play for the Yankees, returned to the Cubs and he finished his playing career in St. Louis. Girardi did not immediately go into coaching after he retired. He hosted  a segment on the Yankees YES Network. He then replaced Jack McKeon for the Florida Marlins. He led the Marlins to wild-card contention even though the payroll was $15 million. To put that in perspective, Carlos Gonzalez will earn $20,000,000 in 2017.

He was fired that season even though he won manager of the year because letting go of their best assets is what the Marlins do best. He returned to the broadcasting booth in 2007 until finally landing the head coach job with the Yankees in 2008. It only took until his second season to win it all.

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The Rockies needed a veteran starting out and they got the consummate professional. They couldn’t have ask for a better catcher to help launch the organization.

Check out the previous story in this list about number 73 Drew Stubbs here.