Yankees offer manager’s job to Girardi

The New York Yankees have offered their managerial job to Joe Girardi, the agent for the former Yankees coach and catcher said Monday, and a formal announcement of the hiring could come as early as today.

The Yankees declined to comment on Girardi’s status until details of a contract -- believed to be worth $6 million over three seasons -- are worked out. But Ray Schulte, the agent for Yankees coach Don Mattingly, who also interviewed for the managerial job, said his client had been told that Girardi was the team’s pick to replace Joe Torre.

“Don was extremely disappointed to learn today that he wasn’t the organization’s choice to fill the managerial vacancy,” Schulte said in a statement. “Instead he was informed the organization offered the position to Joe Girardi.”

Schulte’s four-paragraph statement went on to say that Mattingly, who played 14 seasons for the Yankees and was a coach the last four years, has informed the team he will not return in 2008.

Also passed over was Yankees first base coach Tony Pena, a former American League manager of the year.

Girardi, 43, the 2006 National League manager of the year with the Florida Marlins, won three World Series titles as a catcher on Yankees teams managed by Torre. But the Yankees and Torre parted ways earlier this month after 12 years in which he managed them to five World Series championships and a dozen playoff appearances.

Girardi also served as the Yankees’ bench coach in 2005, when it appeared he was being groomed as Torre’s replacement.

Instead, he was hand-picked by Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria to replace Jack McKeon and in his managerial debut he kept a young Marlins team in the wild-card race until the final weeks of the season.

But it wasn’t a smooth ride. Although he never complained publicly, Girardi said privately that he had been misled about the Marlins’ plan to dump payroll that winter by trading or failing to re-sign eight regulars. By early summer Girardi and General Manager Larry Beinfest were barely on speaking terms -- and Girardi kept his distance from many of his coaches as well, confiding in bench coach Gary Tuck, bullpen coach Mike Harkey and first base coach Bobby Meacham, yet rarely consulting with others on his staff.

His gung-ho demeanor was popular with his players, though, something that temporarily saved his job late that season after Loria fired him following an in-game shouting match between the owner and Tuck. When word of their manager’s dismissal began to filter through the clubhouse, some players said they would refuse to go on the team’s next trip without Girardi and the Marlins backed down, delaying Girardi’s dismissal until the morning after the final game.

Reliever Matt Herges called Girardi one of the best managers he ever played for and shortstop Hanley Ramirez, the NL rookie of the year under Girardi, broke down in tears when Girardi was fired for good.

That kind of support could pay quick dividends for the Yankees, who are reportedly interested in Marlins third baseman Miguel Cabrera as a replacement for Alex Rodriguez. Scott Boras, Rodriguez’s agent, said Sunday his client was opting out of the final three years of his Yankees contract to become a free agent.

Girardi’s no-nonsense approach, which included lengthy midseason fundamental drills, was a perfect fit for a team that played more than 20 rookies.

Whether it will work with a Yankees team chock full of highly paid veterans is anyone’s guess.

But then again, he might not manage the same way in New York.

“Who said that’s the only way he knows how to manage?” Meacham, the first base coach for the San Diego Padres, said of Girardi last month. “Who says he can’t change his style based on the players he’s managing?”

Also of concern is how Girardi will handle the media in New York, where the several dozen reporters who cover the team on a daily basis enjoyed a warm relationship with Torre. In Florida, where only four reporters traveled with the Marlins, Girardi was seen as distant and less than forthcoming.

That may change now, however, since Girardi spent last season as a member of the media, working as a broadcaster with the Yankees-owned YES Network.

kevin.baxter@latimes.com