Fox Sports' Girardi hears Birds' call

It didn't take very long for Joe Girardi's name to surface as a leading candidate for the first managerial vacancy in Major League Baseball.

Girardi, currently an analyst for Fox Sports and the YES Network, will meet today with officials of the Baltimore Orioles to discuss becoming the team's manager, according to a report by ESPN The Magazine's Buster Olney. The job came open on Monday when Sam Perlozzo was fired after the last-place team lost its eighth consecutive game. Current bullpen coach Dave Trembley was named interim manager.

The 2006 National League Manager of the Year with the Florida Marlins, Girardi was fired after the season following a dispute with team ownership. He was subsequently hired as an analyst on YES' New York Yankees telecasts and was added as a commentator for one of Fox's regional Saturday broadcasts.

Girardi, who served as the Yankees' bench coach under Joe Torre prior to taking the Florida job, has been mentioned as a possible Torre successor in New York, though some observers believe that current bench coach Don Mattingly is next in line.