Let’s see if we can get this straight. The Yankees don’t advance to the World Series so just like the Washington Nationals and the Boston Red Sox they fire their manager. They jettisoned Joe Girardi after 10 years and six post-season appearances.

In effect, although different words were used, Girardi leaves the Yankees in a manner similar to Joe Torre’s departure 10 years ago. General Manager Brian Cashman is the man left standing.

Cashman didn’t fire Torre after 12 years as manager, four World Series championships and six World Series appearances. He just made him an offer he could refuse, and Torre did. Cashman didn’t give Girardi an option. He just said, “You’re fired, Joe.”

No matter what you might have read or anyone might have said, the Girardi decision was Cashman’s.

According to a major league official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, the decision was left to Cashman, who after 20 years in his role, very likely figured he better do something to try to win again because if the Yankees continued to fail to win another World Series, his head might be the next one you hear hitting the street with a thud.

I rarely call for someone’s dismissal but in recent years I have advocated Cashman’s dismissal, for which I have acquired his everlasting enmity. If you looked closely enough this season, you might have seen some positive words in these columns about Cashman and the job he has done. Given his dismissal of Girardi, though, I retract anything positive I might have said about Cashman.

Not that I’m a big fan of Girardi’s, but I believe he’s a decent man who has done a decent job and has done nothing to deserve the axe. That, however, is what general managers do. They fire the manager for not winning before they themselves can be fired for not winning. Managers don’t have the luxury of firing general managers. Owners fire general managers, and the Yankees’ owner, Hal Steinbrenner, son of George, obviously won’t fire anyone as the result of watching his father fire one general manager after another, one manager after another, one pitching coach after another, one hitting coach after another.

When Hal Steinbrenner was a boy and was falling asleep at night, he didn’t count sheep; he counted the lopped off heads of Yankees’ general managers and managers. I mean, how many times can you see Billy Martin’s head falling from his neck before it has a lasting effect on an impressionable young mind?

In the Girardi matter, the decision to sign him to a new contract or get a new guy was left to Cashman, who wasn’t under any pressure. If Cashman fired Girardi and the Yankees didn’t win under his replacement, the decision would not come back to affect Cashman. He could act free of any fear for his own job.

That is the liberty Cashman has had for two decades. He isn’t even scrutinized by the news media. He is made of Teflon. Besides me, Cashman has only one critic, and he doesn’t count because he’s an anonymous critic who is obsessed with Cashman. But the guy is right with his view of Cashman. This was a post-firing e-mail the fellow wrote:

“Joe Girardi averaged a record of 91-71 over ten (10) seasons in New York, and did so with teams that did not have the talent to win 91 games for at least five (5) of those seasons and from 2013-2017. Good luck finding someone significantly better to replace him…”

This Cashman critic has never explained his negative view of the general manager; I just know that he’s a lot more incisive and perceptive than the reporters and columnists who cover the Yankees.

The Yankees, on the other hand, believe he is harassing Cashman, know who he is and have had him investigated. They have, however, been unable to stop his flood of e-mail.

Nor have they been able to stop spending multiple millions on their player payroll despite stated intentions to the contrary. Until the current Dodgers’ ownership took control in 2012, the Yankees routinely had the largest player payroll.

In Cashman’s two decades in charge of the payroll, the Yankees have spent $3.665 billion on player contracts. The Yankees won the World Series in Cashman’s first three years on the job, though the team had been put together before he took command, and they won again in 2009, which was Girardi’s second season as manager.

If Girardi hasn’t done a good enough job since to keep his job, has Cashman done a good enough job to keep his?

Given the free flow of funds, Cashman had had, I would say he has not done the job. The Yankees have not played on a level playing field with their division and league teams, but they haven’t won. I would attribute their failure to the way Cashman has constructed the team.

He is being credited with building the team this year with such young stars as Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez and Luis Severino, but where were the good young players before them? The answer is simple. The Yankees didn’t have any good young players because Cashman kept Mark Newman in charge of the minor league system for 15 years, and he didn’t produce any good young players.

But now Cashman is an executive of the year for producing Judge, Sanchez and Severino. I don’t know if Cashman expected the Yankees to win the division and advance to the World Series with his good enough players, but he evidently expects that development next season. Only he didn’t think Girardi could do the job.

A baseball executive told me the Yankees left Girardi’s job status in Cashman’s hands, and Cashman recommended to Steinbrenner that a change was necessary. Blinded for some unknown reason by Cashman’s mind-numbing Svengali control, Steinbrenner replied, “Sure thing, Cash.” And Girardi was gone.

Steinbrenner’s problem is he hasn’t been in touch with his father about Cashman. Two decades on the job and nothing recent to show for it? No way that would have happened with George around. Apparently better to be lucky than good.

“Cashman,” the baseball executive said, “thinks to get the Yankees to the next level they had to make a change.”

I think, I remarked, the wrong guy was fired.

GIRARDI JOINS BAKER, FARRELL

Given that the Yankees have had only two managers in 22 years, the new man may find an awkward tilt to his job.

Girardi was the third manager fired after his team reached the playoffs this year, suggesting it isn’t safe anymore just to make the playoffs. General Managers believe they are spending too much money just to make the post-season. It is now World Series or bust.

Alex Cora, 42 years old, will replace John Farrell in Boston as soon as the World Series ends; Mickey Callaway, 42, has been recruited by the Mets to save their pitchers from themselves, and Dave Martinez, 53, is said to be getting Dusty Baker’s job in Washington.

Remaining to be filled are the jobs in Philadelphia, if the Phillies are still in the league, and the Yankees’ position.

No one has emerged publicly for the Phillies’ position. The newest name floated as the Girardi replacement is Jerry Hairston Jr. The 41-year-old Hairston has not coached or managed but has been a television analyst.

Hairston, a 16-year major leaguer, comes from a baseball-rich family. His brother, father and grandfather all played in the majors. He played in 45 games for the Word Series champion Yankees in 2009.

STARTERS FACE EARLY EXITS

If there has been a theme to the 2017 post-season, it has been “get the starting pitcher out of the game as quickly as possible.” It is the latest pitching development that is bizarre and makes no sense.

One starting pitcher, Jon Lester of the Cubs, has taken exception to the practice. Speaking last week on “Tiki and Tierney Show” on CBS Sports Radio and CBS Sports Network, said about pulling effective starters out of games early”:

“I hate it. I absolutely hate it. You pay your starting pitchers to be starting pitchers. You pay your studs to be studs. I remember growing up and watching these big-time guys – Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux, Smoltz. ‘Here’s the ball. You guys go get it. We’re going to live or die by you.’ Obviously if that falters early, you need to make a decision. That’s different. But if they are cruising, (leave them in).

You’re stretching your bullpen to get 15 outs. That’s a lot of outs from your bullpen. That’s a lot of mixing and matching. That’s a lot of high-stress pitches on those guys. Now you’re bringing in Kenley Jansen to get six outs, which I’m fine with. I don’t mind using your closer for six outs. But for me, you go back to the Yankee days where you had Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, these guys going (for seven or eight innings) and then you give the ball to Mo (Mariano Rivera). That’s the blueprint and that’s what you want every time.

But I just feel like when you ask your bullpen to get nine, 12, 15 outs, there’s a lot of things that can happen and you went from a 3-1 game to a 7-6 game. I feel like that’s what happens when you do that. It puts a lot of stress on your bullpen. They have the off day today. I get it on that side of it. But for me, it’s just not baseball. Baseball is your starters go six, seven, eight and then you mix and match and do your things that you need to do from that point forward. That’s my opinion on it.”

I could not agree more.

The price of winning in baseball has gone up meteorically, in case you hadn’t noticed. This month two managers, Dusty Baker of Washington and John Farrell of Boston, have been fired despite directing their teams to a second successive division championship.

Baker and Farrell weren’t fired for lack of winning but for not winning enough. That is, their teams lost in the division series – the first round – of the playoffs and didn’t win – or at least advance to – the World Series.

In dismissing Baker after two years as the Nationals manager, Mike Rizzo, the president of baseball operations, stated it simply.

“Our expectations,” Rizzo said on a conference call with reporters last Friday, “have grown to the fact that winning regular-season games and winning divisions are not enough. Our goal is to win a world championship.’’

There was a suspicion that Rizzo might not have been speaking for himself but for the team owners, the Lerner family, but that doesn’t really matter. The Lerners wouldn’t be the first owners to fire a manager for not winning the World Series. Fellow named Steinbrenner used to do it all the time.

Baker’s fans, including baseball writers who like Dusty, and he’s easy to like, were outraged at his dismissal. But decades of covering and writing about baseball have taught me that managerial firings are routine. They come with the territory. No manager is immune from dismissal unless his name is Connie Mack and he owns the team.

Baker certainly knows that fact of managerial life and this is not the first time he has been fired. If he was surprised at the Nationals’ act, he hadn’t been paying close enough attention. Owners have become more impatient, and their general managers quickly get their feelings.

The Red Sox dismissal of Farrell should have served as the first warning sign. The only difference in the status of the two managers was Rizzo had hired Baker while Farrell preceded Dave Dombrowski, the Red Sox president of baseball operations.

It comes as no surprise that Dombrowski wanted to name his own manager, and he is expected to do that as soon as the Astros are finished playing in the World Series, and their bench coach, Alex Cora, is available.

It was not immediately known who might be at the top of Rizzo’s list of candidates to succeed Baker.

As good a manager as Baker has been, it’s very possible that he will not get another managing job. At the age of 68, he does not fit the description of managers current general managers seek. Everything is getting younger in baseball, starting with general managers, who hire the managers.

In getting the Tigers’ job, Ron Gardenhire, 60 years old, very likely just got under what the new age limit has become.

Besides the Nationals’ vacancy, the Phillies continue to seek a new manager to replace Pete Mackanin, who proved to be no miracle worker in turning around the disaster the Phillies have become.

For years, the large-market Phillies acted like the Podunk Phillies, and now they’re paying for the shameful way they have abused their fans.

But we’re talking about the apparently new standard for managers so let’s talk about the Yankees’ manager. Is Joe Girardi’s job safe and should it be?

I’ve said it before about General Manager Brian Cashman and I’ll say it again about Cashman and Girardi, whose contracts are both expiring now that the Yankees’ season is over. If George Steinbrenner were still around, both Cashman and Girardi would be gone, would have been long gone.

Steinbrenner didn’t tolerate losers, and in his eyes, Cashman and Girardi would be losers. Under Steinbrenner, if you didn’t win, that automatically made you a loser.

George, however, has left us, leaving his youngest child, Hal, to run the team. In the Yankees’ first post-George season, oldest son Hank was in charge, but he was quickly deemed unfit for the role and was replaced by brother Hal.

Since the advent of George as principal owner, the team’s general managers and managers have operated on a playing field that has not been level with that of other teams. In the system of new-fangled metrics, there are formulae that attempt to bring equality into the baseball picture. Not with payrolls, though.

The Yankees long had the highest payroll and spent whatever they had to replace injured players and fill in gaps. That’s why I always found it a joke when officials of other teams would praise Cashman for the job he was doing.

It so happens that I think this year, when the Yankees were trying to reduce their payroll for strategic economic reasons, that Cashman probably did the best job of his 20 years as general manager. His player acquisitions were good, and his fill-ins couldn’t have been better. They weren’t expensive either.

But still no World Series. No division crown either. That was snatched by the Red Sox, who fired their manager for not advancing beyond the division series. Where does that leave Girardi?

It’s not very likely that the Yankees will fire their manager of 10 years. Hal Steinbrenner just doesn’t believe in firing people. He spent his formative years watching his father fire one person after another, often brutally, and decided this was not a lifestyle for him.

That’s his prerogative, and he can stick to it as long as the family doesn’t object and call for change. I doubt that any member of the Steinbrenner family liked what the family czar did. It was crude and unseemly, and it’s easy to see family members of a younger generation balking at following it.

As someone who has covered and written about the Yankees from the day in 1973 that Steinbrenner and his partners purchased the team, it seems strange to see how the ownership has developed. It is quiet and remains quiet in the face of defeat, which comes more often than not these days.

MIXED MESSAGES IN S.F.

What’s a guy supposed to think? Early this year, one of his bosses thanks me for calling to ask about Hensley Meulens, the Giants’ hitting coach, and now another of his bosses is suggesting he could be losing his job. In the meantime, Meulens had his first interview, albeit on the telephone, for a managerial job.

Unfortunately, between those two incidents, the Giants lost 98 games, and there’s nothing like 98 losses to make forgettable three World Series championships in a five-year span.

The Giants were obviously unhappy with their 2017 season, and General Manager Bobby Evans let the world know it Saturday, sounding very different from Brian Sabean, the executive vice president for baseball operations, when I spoke with him before the 98-loss season.

I had called Sabean to ask about Meulens because he had received high grades for his managing the Netherlands team twice in the World Baseball Classic. Sabean actually thanked me for asking, saying Bruce Bochy’s coaches didn’t get enough credit or attention for the Giants’ three World Series championships.

Evans, who was named in 2015 to succeed Sabean as general manager, wasn’t part of that conversation. Last Saturday, though, Evans held a conference call on which he disclosed changes to Bochy’s staff.

Dave Righetti, the Giants’ pitching coach for 18 years; bullpen coach Mark Gardner and assistant hitting coach Steve Decker were re-assigned within the organization. Evans didn’t say anything specific about Meulens but said he had interviewed candidates for Meulens’ job.

Evans mentioned that new voices were needed, and that reason is often used in explaining coaching changes. In this instance, it would seem that Bochy could be in trouble if the Giants start next season poorly. Bochy has managed the Giants for 11 years.

Where have all the starting pitchers gone? Look quickly and closely, or you may miss them. This has been probably the most unusual post-season ever, marked by manager after manager rushing from the dugout to the mound to summon relief pitchers with the games still in the early innings.

The managers can’t seem to wave their arms, left or right, quickly enough in the directions of the bullpens to call for new pitchers. Joe Girardi, the Yankees’ manager, set the tone in the very first post-season game, yanking Luis Severino only one out into the American League wild-card game with Minnesota. Other managers quickly followed suit.

Through Thursday night’s National League division series final game, 38 pitchers had started post-season games, and fewer than half pitched long enough to qualify for a winning decision.. All of the starters – 38 in number – averaged 12.7 outs a start. Fifteen outs constitute five innings, the number needed to be the winning pitcher.

That 12.7 average is significantly below the average number of outs starters have recorded in recent post-seasons, according to Elias Sports Bureau, though it follows the trend of starters being removed from games earlier than ever:

• 2016    15.3 outs per starter
• 2015    16.5
• 2014    16.7
• 2013    17.3

In a concurrent development, starting pitchers have been showing up in relief roles regularly. Justin Verlander, Chris Sale, David Price, Jon Lester and Jose Quintana all relieved in division series games, creating this economically interesting development: six pitchers with contracts totaling $815.5 million have pitched in relief, and that total includes Quintana’s meager $21 million.

That’s a lot of money to be paying relief pitchers, but clubs are paying a lot of money to have starters pitch fewer innings than ever. The game, to be sure, has changed.

“It’s a changing of the guard,” said Jack Morris, a former pitcher, who was notorious for refusing to come out of games prematurely. He very likely would have throttled a manager right out on the mound if he tried to remove him from a post-season game after an inning or two. “Smoltz and I were talking about it the other day.”

Morris and John Smoltz will forever be linked in post-season baseball legend for their classic duel in Game 7 of the 1991 World Series, one of the most memorable and electrifying games in World Series history. Smoltz pitched 7 1/3 innings for the Braves, departing after two singles in the eighth. Morris didn’t leave until the 10-inning game was over and the Twins had won, 1-0.

I found Tom Kelly at home in Minnesota Saturday and asked him if he had considered taking Morris out.

“After the ninth,” the former Twins manager recalled, “I told Jack ‘That’s enough, Jack.’ Three times in 10 days I thought it was enough. He looked up at me. The pitching coach said ‘I think he’s OK.’ Jack said he was OK. After he has pitched the game of his life, how could I take it away from him? The 10^th was probably the easiest inning he had. The 10^th, not third or fourth.”

Kelly, who managed the Twins to World Series crowns in 1987 and ’91, has been removed from the front lines long enough that he has no insight into why managers are yanking starters as quickly as they have been and doesn’t necessarily agree with the practice.

Refering to comments made by Smoltz, a television analyst of the playoffs, Kelly said, “I agree with Smoltz. He’s pretty much right on. He professed if you’re going to be successful in these games someone has to pitch longer games for as long as you can. I’m all for keeping them out there for as long as you can.”

That philosophy, though, has not been followed this post-season. “Apparently, they have no faith in them,” Kelly said, meaning the starting pitchers, “and have more faith in the bullpen.”

Kelly’s prize pitcher, Morris, said, “Teams have more relievers. They figure if they have them, they should use them.” Morris, who like Smoltz is a post-season analyst, said the two pitchers have talked about the managers’ use of starters and have joked about it, too.

“We’ve said it’s getting close,” Morris said. “We’ve joked about it. But it’s getting closer to starters going through the lineup once and then they’re out.”

The Red Sox offered a good example of what can happen to a team that doesn’t follow Kelly’s and Smoltz’s advice, keeping starters in the game as long as possible. Of their four post-season starters, Doug Fister pitched 1 1/3 innings, Drew Pomeranz two innings and Pat Porcello three. Sale survived the longest but made it through only five innings.

Verlander and Sale crossed paths both as starters and relievers in their teams’ recent division series. The Astros obtained Verlander from Detroit Aug. 31, the last day he would be eligible for the post-season.

Verlander was the starting and winning pitcher in Game 1 of the division series. Sale was the starting and losing pitcher in that game. The pitchers hooked up again, this time as relievers, in Game 4, the one that sent the Red Sox home for the winter and their manager, John Farrell, to the unemployment office.

As in Game 1, Verlander was the winning pitcher, Sale the loser. The Red Sox scored a run against Verlander in 2 2/3 innings while the Astros scored two runs against Sale in 4 2/3.

Price, who earns $31 million a year, was in the Boston bullpen because he spent much of the season nursing an elbow injured and was deemed not to be ready to start a post-season game.

The Yankees’ post-season trendsetter, Severino, lasted briefest of all post-season starters, given the exit after getting only one out. He began the wild-card game by giving up home runs to two of the first three batters, Brian Dozier and Eddie Rosario, with a walk tossed between them. Twenty-three pitches into the game, Severino and the Yankees were down 3-0 in a game they had to win to advance to the division series.

Taijuan Walker of Arizona had the next briefest start, lasting one inning against the Dodgers in their division series opener. He allowed four runs, three on Justin Turner’s homer.

Home runs were not good things for starting pitchers to allow. Corey Kluber, who gave up two to Didi Gregorius in the first three innings, was removed after 3 2/3 and the Indians lost to the Yankees.

GIVE RUNNERS A BREAK

As much as I am not a fan of replay challenges, I have refrained from commenting on them. There was, however, a play near the end of Game 5 of the division series between the National and the Cubs that I believe cries out for correction.

Maybe it cost the Nationals the game and advancing to the league series, maybe it didn’t. Whether or not it did, it’s a ridiculous rule. It affects baserunners, and the rules changes have hurt runners more than anyone else, and it’s time they got something back.

The rule I refer to is the ability of an infielder to tag out a runner if his little finger or toe comes off the base for an instant when he has already slid in safely. Because umpires make the out calls, the fielders will attach their gloves-with-ball to the prone runner until the umpire declares the play over.

Having a runner’s foot or hand come off the base for a second has always been a natural result of a slide, feet or head first. Maybe I’ve missed it these many years I have been watching and covering baseball, but I don’t think so. Certainly no big deal was ever made of it with fielder poised to strike if the runner should breathe wrong and his hand or his foot loses contact with the base for an instant.

Runners can be called out for running over a catcher or taking out a middle infielder improperly to break up a double play. Give the runner something. Not only would that change be right and fair, but it would – note to Commissioner Rob Manfred – also speed up the pace of game.

All of those valuable seconds could be saved because fielders would abandon the base sooner and return to their positions, being in place for the pitcher to throw the next pitch sooner.

On the play that prompted this reaction, a Nationals baserunner, Jose Lobaton, had just singled, giving Washington runners at first and second with two out in the eighth inning and the Cubs ahead 9-8. The Nationals, however, lost the chance to score the tying run because Lobaton was “picked off” first.

That, at least, was the ruling made by the indoor umpires at Chelsea Market in Manhattan, home of MLB Advanced Media. Lobaton had dived safely back to first, but his finger came off the bag for an instant just long enough for the Cubs’ first baseman, Anthony Rizzo, to tag him and have the Chelsea crew call him out for the final out of the inning.

It shouldn’t have happened; it never should happen and it can easily be fixed before next season.