As the New York Yankees officially announce Joe Girardi will not return in 2018, ESNY explores who could fill his shoes in the Bronx.

It’s official: the New York Yankees will not bring Joe Girardi back for the 2018 season — ending his 10-year tenure in the Bronx following a season that saw the franchise come one win away from the American League Pennant.

Girardi led the Yankees to a 910-710 (.562) record under his leadership, good enough for the best record in baseball over that span. He is also the only manager to lead his team to a winning record in each of the last 10 seasons (2008-17) and has led the Yankees to the postseason in six separate seasons, trailing the Los Angeles Dodgers (seven) for the most by any team since 2008.

Clearly, it won’t be easy to succeed Joe Girardi. He wasn’t a perfect manager, but there are very few who were able to do a better job than the former Yankees’ skipper. However, general manager Brian Cashman’s quest for just the third manager the team has seen since 1996 is on top of his offseason to-do list.

Cashman’s ideal candidate is pretty apparent. He’ll be looking for a guy on the cheap who relies on analytics and someone who will work directly with the front office. Cashman usually hires internally — more specifically, those who he has worked with in the past — but may have to look outside his Yankees’ family if he’s looking for experience.

Either way, this is easily the Yankees’ biggest priority this winter. There is an astonishing new core in place in the Bronx with more prospects on the way and they’re in need of a strong leader who can lead the Baby Bombers to potential championships. Here are profiles of potential candidates the Yankees could explore:

Internal Options

Rob Thomson:

Thomson checks all the boxes in terms of fit to fulfill a managerial position. He was on Girardi’s staff throughout his entire Yankees’ coaching tenure, starting in 2008 as the team’s bench coach. He also worked as the team’s third base coach for six seasons before the 2015 season, when he was named bench coach — a position he has held since. Before his Major League coaching career, he was in the Yankees’ front office starting in 1998 as a Field Coordinator and became Director of Player Development in 2000. Prior to the 2003 season, he was named Vice President of Minor League Development. Before being assigned to Girardi’s staff in 2008, Thomson was the Yankees’ major league field coordinator, acting as a bridge between the Yankees’ advance scouts and the coaching staff (per Baseball Reference). He has extensive knowledge of the organization and his work with Brian Cashman will surely warrant a legitimate examination by the front office for the open spot.

Tony Pena:

Looking for another qualified candidate to be the next Yankees’ manager on the same level as Thomson? Look no further than Tony Pena. His candidacy features both managerial experience and familiarity with the organization. In 2002, he was hired by the Kansas City Royals as the manager and led the 2003 Royals to record of 83–79, marking the franchise’s first season with a winning record since 1994. With that, Pena took home the 2003 AL Manager of the Year Award. He resigned in 2005 before being hired by the Yankees as the first base coach in 2006. He interviewed for the vacant managerial position in the Bronx in 2007 when Joe Torre declined a one-year contract extension but retained his first base coach position in 2008 before earning the bench coach spot from 2009-14. He returned to first when Rob Thomson moved from his third base coach position to bench coach to make room for Joe Espada, who is the team’s current third base coach. Pena was also a candidate to replace Terry Francona in Boston in 2011 before Bobby Valentine earned the job. After the latter was fired, Pena was interviewed once again to be the Red Sox manager. The Dominican Republic National Baseball Team hired Pena as manager for the 2013 World Baseball Classic, where he led his squad to an 8-0 record and a championship. There is very little doubt that he will interview for Yankees’ manager this time around as he enters with an impeccable resume.

Al Pedrique:

Pedrique could be considered a solid given his experience and his work with the Baby Bombers over the last five years. The 57-year-old spent one season managing Low-A Charleston, High-A Tampa, Double-A Trenton before wrapping up his second year at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in 2017, where he has won back-to-back International League manager of the year honors. Before becoming a part of this farm system, Pedrique managed in the minors for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Houston Astros, and Kansas City Royals from 2000 to 2002. In 2003, he took over as Arizona’s before managing the Tucson Sidewinders, the Diamondbacks’ Triple-A affiliate, the following year. In July of that season, he was hired as the team’s interim coach after Bob Brenly was fired and posted a 22–61 record. If Cashman is looking for the perfect leader for his new core, he may look no further than the guy who managed Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, Luis Severino, Greg Bird, Clint Frazier and Gleyber Torres during their most significant development period.

Jay Bell:

Bell enjoyed a successful 18-year career as a shortstop and infielder for the Cleveland Indians (1986–88), Pittsburgh Pirates (1989–96), Kansas City Royals (1997), Arizona Diamondbacks (1998–2002) and New York Mets. During his playing career, he was a two-time All-Star, Gold Glove winner, Silver Slugger, and a World Series champion. He is currently the manager of the Yankees’ Class-A affiliate, where he was just named the best managerial prospect in the Florida State League by Baseball America. At the Major League level, Bell was the bench coach for the Diamondbacks (2005-06) and Cincinnati Reds (2014-15) as well as the hitting coach for the Pittsburgh Pirates (2012). He was also the bench coach for the New Zealand national baseball team in the 2013 World Baseball Classic. He would also enter 2018 with extensive knowledge of the Yankees’ farm system. More specifically the prospects closest to the bigs, as he most recently became the manager of the Scottsdale Scorpions of the Arizona Fall League — where Justus Sheffield, Billy McKinney, and Estevan Florial, among other prospects, are playing.

Josh Paul:

Paul, a journeyman catcher who never played more than 58 games in a single season from 1999 to 2007, formerly managed the Single-A Staten Island Yankees in 2009 and 2010. Paul is currently working in the organization as a catching coordinator and shouldn’t be ruled out during this hunt for a new skipper. For what it’s worth, the 42-year-old was thought highly enough to step in for Dave Eiland as the interim bullpen coach when the then-Yankees’ pitching coach left the team for personal reasons in 2010.

Experienced Outside Candidates

Don Mattingly:

Following his retirement in 1995, Mattingly spent seven seasons as a special instructor at the team’s spring training facility in Tampa from 1997 through 2003 before being named the hitting coach. To say the six-time All-Star was good at his job would be an understatement, as the Yankees set a then-all-time franchise record with 242 home runs in 2004. For the 2007 season, he took over as the bench coach and was a finalist for the manager’s position when Torre left it vacant. As Torre left for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Mattingly followed as the team’s hitting coach before taking over as his managerial replacement when Torre announced his retirement after the 2010 season. He spent five seasons as the Dodgers’ skipper, putting together an impressive record of 446–363 record (.551) and is the only manager in team history to guide earn three straight postseason berths. He just completed his second campaign as manager of the Miami Marlins, where he guided them to a second-place finish in the NL East. Although they moved up a spot in the standings, his record fell two wins short of the previous campaign (79-82). Since 2013, Mattingly (434 wins) is the third-winningest manager in Majors, behind Joe Maddon (462) and Mike Matheny (457). He is currently locked in his four-year deal as the team’s manager, but as owner Derek Jeter looks to steer the franchise in a new direction, he could pursue a new skipper. If that is the case this offseason, Cashman might be interested in Mattingly, a Bronx legend who now has managerial experience under his belt — which wasn’t the case when he interviewed in 2007.

Dusty Baker:

Following a year in which the Yankees won 91 games, were one win away from the World Series and presumably enter 2018 as a pennant favorite, they are the perfect win-now team for Dusty Baker. He is a three-time National League Manager of the Year (1993, 1997, 2000), and a finalist in 2016. In 22 years as a manager in the Major Leagues, Baker’s teams have won 90 games or more on nine occasions. In his last four seasons (two with the Cincinnati Reds, two with the Washington Nationals), he is 379-269 — an average yearly record of 95-67. He is also one of just four managers in history to produce at least 1,500 hits as a player and win at least 1,500 games as a manager. Looking for one more shot to win a title at 68-years-old, the Bronx could be a landing spot for him.

Pete Mackanin:

Mackanin kicked off his managerial career in 2005 when he stepped in as the Pirates’ interim manager for the last month of the season. In 2007, he replaced Jerry Narron as the Cincinnati Reds’ interim manager before being replaced by Dusty Baker. In 2013, he served as a scout for the Yankees and was the Philadelphia Phillies’ bench coach from 2009 to 2012. He served as Phillies third base coach in 2014 before replacing Ryne Sandberg as the team’s interim manager in 2015. Mackanin took over as the full-time manager in 2016 and managed until 2017, as the Phillies announced he would not return. Although he finished his tenure in Philadelphia with a mediocre 174-238 record, his last season ended on a positive note as his squad finished the second half with a 37-38 record (.493) and an even run differential (358-358) after finishing the first half of the season with a 29-58 record (.333) and a -92 run differential (332-424). He also won 13 of their final 21 games. There is a connection with the Yankees as a scout and considering the circumstances in Philadelphia, he did an admirable job over his two years there.

New Blood

Kevin Long:

Long’s name has been in the news over the last few weeks as the New York Mets had him on their list of managerial candidates, but after Mickey Callaway was given the position, Long is exploring his options. He was given permission to speak with the Washington Nationals regarding their managerial position and is back in the New York rumor mill after the Yankees announced they will move on from Joe Girardi. Long has experience under Brian Cashman after he was promoted from Triple-A hitting coach to hitting coach for the Yankees in 2007. In his first season, the Bombers led the league in runs (968), hits (1,656), home runs (201), batting average (.290), slugging percentage (.463) and on-base percentage (.366). The 968 runs marked the most in franchise history since 1937. Despite being a well-respected hitting coach, he was fired after the 2014 season following a season which featured down years by Jeter, Carlos Beltran, Brian McCann, and Mark Teixeira. It wasn’t the roughest of breakups as Cashman said he couldn’t “find somebody who works hard or cares more” after Long was fired. That doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll get an interview for the Yankees’ managerial spot, but you never know.

Raul Ibanez:

Ibanez is respected throughout the sport as a great person, tremendous baseball mind and is well-spoken as an analyst on ESPN. He played for the Yankees in 2012, where he hit 19 home runs during the regular season and came up clutch in the ALDS. He’s currently serving as a special advisor to Los Angeles Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, Andrew Friedman. In 2014, he was interviewed for the unoccupied Tampa Bay Rays’ managerial position, which eventually went to Kevin Cash. If Cashman is looking for a flashy yet intelligent hire, Ibanez could be his man.

Alex Rodriguez: 

Imagine A-Rod managing for Brian Cashman, who is on the record directing some colorful words at the former Yankees’ third baseman. Like the time he told him to “shut the f**k up” after he tweeted that he was ready to play back in 2013. Or the time he said the thought of Rodriguez coaching was “f**king crazy.” Or the time he called him a bench player amidst his 2016 slump. Yes, A-Rod cleaned up his act over the last two years, but it seems like he burned way too many bridges during his controversial Yankees’ career to earn a managerial position. At the very least, it’s too soon. Even with his extensive baseball intelligence and charm when it comes to handling the media, the Bronx may turn into a zoo under his management.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The original version of this post claimed Josh Paul is the Staten Island Yankees manager. That was incorrect, as the 42-year-old currently works in the organization as a catching coordinator. He managed the short-season affiliate in 2008-09.