The Philadelphia Phillies fired manager Joe Girardi on Friday, severing a relationship that began with the 2020 season. In the two-plus years since, Girardi had accumulated a 132-141 record, including a disappointing 22-29 mark in 2022. The Phillies, who had entered the spring with aspirations of making the playoffs for the first time in a decade, now find themselves 5 1/2 games out in the race for the National League's third wild card spot.

Bench coach Rob Thomson has been named the interim manager. He's expected to hold the position for the rest of the season, meaning the Phillies won't officially begin their search for a new skipper anytime soon. Still, we're not going to let that inconvenient truth prevent us from reckless speculation.

Below, we've identified six individuals who could in time emerge as candidates to become the Phillies next manager. As always, keep in mind that this is more of an art than a science. The individuals are presented in alphabetical order.

1. Brad Ausmus, Athletics bench coach

A general belief that is widely held in professional sports is that teams who fire their manager tend to prefer the inverse profile when hiring a successor. The Phillies followed that path when they replaced Gabe Kapler, a younger and more progressive individual, with the safe veteran Girardi. For all anyone knows, they'll do it again when they replace Girardi. Ausmus, himself an experienced big-league manager, wouldn't seem to fit the profile. He was hired by Phillies executive Dave Dombrowski in Detroit, however, and he was considered a serious candidate to land the New York Mets job over the winter. Ausmus would not be a particularly inspired choice, but he was once considered a top managerial prospect and he seems certain to get a third chance at the helm somewhere, be it in Philadelphia or elsewhere.