TAMPA, Fla. — Starting his 10th season as New York Yankees manager, Joe Girardi wants to lead the team beyond 2017 and watch the Baby Bombers mature.
Girardi is entering the final season of a $16 million, four-year contract. The Yankees won the 2009 World Series in his second season but have missed the postseason in three of the past four years, have not won a postseason game since the 2012 AL Division Series and pivoted toward youth last summer.
“I don’t envision myself doing anything different,” Girardi said as pitchers and catchers reported for spring training. “This is what I know, this is what I’ve done for a long time.”
Girardi doesn’t anticipate discussions about an extension with owner Hal Steinbrenner before the end of the season.
“It doesn’t really impact me,” Girardi said. “I’m going to go do my job the same way, the way that I believe is, for me, the right way. They have not extended managers as long as I can remember during the course of the season. So, I’ll just go do my job and whatever happens, happens.”
Girardi managed the Florida Marlins to a 78-84 record in 2006 and is 819-693 with the Yankees.
• Girardi plans to start Masahiro Tanaka in the season opener April 2 at Tampa Bay.
ORIOLES: Chris Tillman won’t extend his streak of opening-day starts for Baltimore to four.
As spring training opened, Orioles Manager Buck Showalter said Tillman had a platelet-rich plasma injection on his right shoulder and will not pitch in a spring training game before March 17. As a result, Tillman won’t start the season until April 7 at the earliest.
RAYS: Tampa Bay finalized a $2 million, one-year contract with injured pitcher Nathan Eovaldi, a deal that allows him to earn an additional $5.5 million in 2018.
The 27-year-old right-hander is expected to miss the 2017 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery last August, when he was with the New York Yankees.
ROYALS: Left-hander Brian Flynn is expected to be sidelined for eight weeks after falling through a barn roof at his Oklahoma residence.
The Royals said Flynn broke a rib and had three minor vertebrae fractures.
RANGERS: Texas acquired right-handed knuckleballer Eddie Gamboa from the Tampa Bay Rays and placed reliever Jake Diekman and first baseman Prince Fielder on the 60-day disabled list.
Fielder was forced to quit playing last summer after his second neck surgery, but is under contract through 2020 for $24 million a season.
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