Alex Rodriguez may have given up on the season*, but Lil’ Hank Steinbrenner has faith that the guys who put the Yankees in their current predicament will also turn help things around next year.

Obviously, Hank’s old man, George, has a lot to do with New York’s situation, but since he’s family — and more importantly, the reason his son has a job — the fingers are pointing in the general direction of GM Brian Cashman and first-year manager Joe Girardi. But according to the ASSOCIATED PRESS, nobody’s getting canned. Not yet, anyway.

“Joe will be back,” Hank Steinbrenner told the AP yesterday in Tampa. “He’s done everything he could. That’s the bottom line.” …

Nobody thought otherwise, given that Yankees co-chairmen Hank and Hal Steinbrenner have been fully supportive of Girardi in all their public comments. They also have been largely supportive of general manager Brian Cashman, whose contract is up after this season but who will be back if he chooses. ,,,

When placing the blame for this year’s disappointing season, Hank Steinbrenner has generally talked about injuries. The Yankees have endured lengthy disabled list stints from prominent players such as Chien-Ming Wang, Jorge Posada, Hideki Matsui and Joba Chamberlain. Alex Rodriguez and Johnny Damon also have spent time on the DL

When Girardi was asked to assess his first season in New York, he offered this cryptic response: “I won’t think about that, because there are more important things to think about than to sit around and think about yourself.”

Well said, Riddler.

It’s not fair to blame Girardi for all the Yanks’ problems this season, but this is the same guy who got run out of Florida about 10 seconds after he named 2006 NFL Manager of the Year because he was unbearable to work for. And while he’s still no barrel of monkeys at the office, he’s not even winning games. Nice two-fer, that.

* in so many words, none of which includes “give up” appearing consecutively in a sentence