Philadelphia Phillies owner John Middleton grew up as a baseball fan and carried that passion into adulthood. In the midst of his time at Harvard Business School, the Red Sox and the Yankees played out an epic pennant race, and Middleton was in Fenway Park for the one-game playoff that turned on Bucky Dent's home run.
He operates the Phillies with the intimate perspective of an ardent fan, and because he understood what his fans wanted, Middleton spent his money on Bryce Harper over Manny Machado last winter. Because he was attuned to the fans, he fired Gabe Kapler, an unpopular figure in Philadelphia, as one late-season poll in the city's largest newspaper demonstrated.
And because he thinks like a fan, Middleton knew he couldn't sell another first-time manager to his fan base.
Reportedly, the front office preferred Showalter, from a shared past with the Baltimore Orioles -- president Andy MacPhail and GM Matt Klentak worked with Showalter in Baltimore -- but Middleton opted for Girardi, who sat out the past two years after being let go by the Yankees at the end of the 2017 season.
Girardi is bright and uniformly prepared, and he is deeply respected for his baseball knowledge and his personal values. But his success with the Phillies might depend on what he learned from his exit with the Yankees. Girardi is deeply familiar with analytics -- by the time he left the Yankees, they were among baseball's most progressive teams in their use of statistics -- so that part of his transition to the Phillies will be smooth.
But on Girardi's way out, much was said within the Yankees organization about his lack of a personal connection to players, which has become such a valued asset among managers. Front offices steer managers in personnel, lineup and pitching decisions, and they script and review in-game decisions, but inspiring the daily buy-in from players remains the purview of the manager and his coaches. A.J. Hinch has constructed sturdy relationships with players, and so has the Dodgers' Dave Roberts, the Red Sox's Alex Cora and the Yankees' Aaron Boone.
Some of Girardi's former players, on the other hand, say they didn't really have that kind of coveted relationship with him, and his persistent intensity -- omnipresent from his first days as a player -- bothered some in the clubhouse over the long season.
Early in Showalter's time as a manager, there were similar complaints about him. But he evolved, and by the time he took over the Orioles, he had stopped worrying about stuff like how a player wore his uniform or his cap. Players found him relatable, more so than others who had worked under Showalter previously.
Presumably, some of the questions asked of Girardi in his interview process were about the style changes he intends to effect in his next managerial opportunity. It'll be important for him to make change, given the expectations and needs of players in this era, while finding a proper balance in a city that loves toughness -- embodied by the Broad Street Bullies, the competitiveness of Larry Bowa and Chase Utley, and the specter of Rocky Balboa.
After the Phillies played their last game of the season and questions about Kapler's future hovered over the franchise, Middleton was on the field after the final out and shook hands with Kapler -- and his presence in that place, at that time, raised eyebrows in the front offices of other teams. "Strange," said one high-ranking executive.
Not really. That's just Middleton's style, personal and leading from the front. It was his way of saying goodbye and thanking one manager for his service, and now he'll share handshakes with his new manager, who will be under immediate scrutiny.