The New York Yankees have parted ways with Joe Girardi, opting not to bring back their manager after his contract expired this offseason.

Girardi announced Thursday that he won’t be returning to the Bronx club after a 10-year stint at the helm, which included a World Series championship in 2009.

“With a heavy heart, I come to you because the Yankees have decided not to bring me back,” Girardi said in a statement Thursday morning.

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman confirmed the move in a statement, saying: “Everything this organization does is done with careful and thorough consideration, and we’ve decided to pursue alternatives for the managerial position.”

New York do not have an obvious candidate to replace him. The Yankees are the third of the 10 postseason teams to remove managers, joining Boston and Washington.



Girardi, who was chosen over Don Mattingly to succeed the beloved Joe Torre in 2008, overcame a tepid first season to win the club’s 27th world championship in 2009. They’ve fallen short every year since.

This year, the 53-year-old took a young Yankees team to within one game of the World Series before falling in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series on Saturday.

It was an exhilirating end to a postseason that saw Girardi’s managing came under withering criticism, no worse than during and after Game 2 of the division series against the Indians when he failed to call for a review of a hit-by-pitch call that enabled a Cleveland comeback.

“I screwed up. And it’s hard. It’s a hard day for me,” he said then. “But I got to move forward and we’ll be ready to go tomorrow.”

New York won the next three games to advance, lost the first two games of the ALCS at Houston, then won three in a row to move within a victory of reaching the World Series for the first time in eight years. But the Astros swept the final two games.

Cashman said he and owner Hal Steinbrenner had spoken directly with Girardi this week.

Girardi’s 910-710 regular season record with the Yankees is sixth in victories managing the team behind Joe McCarthy (1,460), Torre (1,173), Casey Stengel (1,149), Miller Huggins (1,067) and Ralph Houk (944).

“He has a tireless work ethic, and put his heart into every game he managed over the last decade,” Cashman said. “He should take great pride in our accomplishments during his tenure.”

Of active managers, only the Los Angeles Angels’ Mike Scioscia and the San Francisco Giants’ Bruce Bochy had been with their teams longer.

Previously, Girardi played 15 seasons as a catcher in the majors with the Cubs, Rockies, Yankees and Cardinals, winning World Series titles with New York in 1996, 1998 and 1999. He said last weekend he had to speak with his family before deciding whether he wanted to return. New York made the decision for him.