No experience needed to manage in MLB these days

There have been eight manager changes in baseball this offseason and almost all of them have analytical traits throughout the hiring processes.

We saw it coming – the gradual emasculation of managers by analytics-driven GMs – and with almost all seven manager hires so far (only Colorado is still looking for a new skipper after finally hiring Paul DePodesta as their new GM last week), the one attribute that seemed to be missing was credibility.

It’s almost as if general managers are saying, “Manager needed. No major league experience necessary.”

Of the seven hired so far, only Walt Weiss with the Braves, Skip Schumaker with Texas and Derek Shelton with Minnesota have succeeded in the big leagues. And of those three, only Schumaker, who was the 2023 National League Manager of the Year with the Marlins, has done so with any degree of success. During his previous managerial stop, Weiss had four losing seasons at Colorado. Shelton, who never played in the majors, had six straight losing seasons in Pittsburgh with an overall winning percentage of .410.

The Braves’ hiring of Weiss, however, was somewhat understandable as he had been Braves manager Brian Snitker’s right-hand man as bench coach since 2018 and considered an integral part of the organization by general manager Alex Anthopoulos. The Twins’ hiring of Shelton, on the other hand, has been a real headache (not to mention a real inconvenience for Minnesota fans) in that there is nothing on his resume other than familiarity with the Twins organization from his time coaching under former manager Rocco Baldelli in 2019 to suggest he is capable of resurrecting the rebuilding Twins anytime soon, if ever. In fact, I have to believe he was probably so surprised that Twins general manager Derek Falvey hired him over a number of other more proven candidates, he talked about how excited he was that the analytics department would take roster duties away from him.

The one common denominator in almost all of these new manager hires is that today’s analytics-driven general managers are not so much interested in a candidate’s game strategy or leadership abilities, but rather in a commitment to the organization’s formulas and player evaluation processes and lack of resistance. We thought Giants boss Buster Posey was a return to old-school baseball ways when he weeded out a lot of analytical geeks under his failed predecessor Farhan Zaidi, but then he shocked baseball by hiring a college coach, Tennessee’s Tony Vitello, who never played, coached or managed a day of professional baseball.

It’s said that Vitello’s greatest strength at Tennessee was that he was an excellent recruiter, but last time I looked, that wasn’t one of the requirements for a major league coaching job. The learning curve for a first-year manager — especially moving from the college ranks to the big leagues — is enormous, starting with Vitello going from about 60 games a year to nearly 200, counting spring training and the playoffs. And as one former manager told me, “He better have someone to run spring training for him, and he better be an expert at calling a football game, because his college credibility will fade quickly with the major leagues.” »

It’s hard to believe Posey would take such a risk, but maybe that’s why he also just hired his former manager, Bruce Bochy, as a senior advisor. Meanwhile, the other new signings – 43-year-old Craig Albernaz in Baltimore, 33-year-old Blake Butera in Washington, Craig Stammen in San Diego and, to a lesser extent, Kirk Suzuki with the Angels – should also be viewed with a lot of skepticism until proven otherwise.

Albernaz: A career minor league player who hit .199 in nine years, primarily in the Rays’ system, his only managerial experience was two seasons in A-ball with the Rays. His only major league experience is two years on the Guardians’ coaching staff, but he is now the third consecutive manager after Brandon Hyde and Tony Mansolino, who never played or managed in the major leagues, hired by the Orioles’ analytically grounded general manager Mike Elias. If ever a team needed an experienced manager, it was the Orioles, whose young core seriously regressed last year, but that’s not what Elias wants.

Butera: Another graduate of the Rays system, who won four pennants in four years playing A-ball, he will be the youngest major league manager since Frank Quilici of the Twins in 1972. In his case, his lack of major league credibility won’t be an issue because the Nationals will be doormats of the NL East for a while and no one will notice whether he makes a difference or not.

Cheesecloth: This one was really shocking. After interviewing Rangers special assistant Nick Hundley and future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols (reported for 9 1/2 hours), Padres general manager AJ Preller turned around and hired Stammen, one of his front office assistants who had actually been part of the manager’s interview process, for a three-year contract – despite the fact that Stammen never succeeded anywhere and retired that three years ago after a 13-year career as a relief pitcher. In other words, no credential management. But like Albernaz, Butera, Vitello and Shelton, Stammen can be considered a good soldier by Preller.

You could argue that of all the new managers, Suzuki — who spent 16 years as a catcher in the majors and the last three as special assistant to Angels manager Perry Minasian — has as much credibility as any of them even though he never made it, but that probably won’t matter since quixotic Angels owner Arte Moreno only gave him a one-year deal.

Time will tell if any of these unconventional manager hires succeed, but the trend is clearly established. As one old-school, admittedly hardened baseball player told me: “We’re not hiring managers anymore. We’re hiring Stepford wives.”

IT’S A MAD, MAD WORLD

After a most satisfactory season during which he finally reached the World Series, Don Mattingly left his coaching job with the Blue Jays last week, but insisted he was not retiring from baseball. As much as his multitude of fans would love to see him return to the Yankees, that won’t happen. What is likely, however, is that Mattingly will reunite with his old Yankee ally. Rob Thomson as bench coach with the Phillies, where his son, Prestonis the general manager. And then there’s the Hall of Fame where, last week, Mattingly was announced as one of eight candidates on the Contemporary Era ballot that will be announced Dec. 7 at the Winter Meetings in Orlando. It’s a tough ballot in which you could make a Hall of Fame case for any of the eight former players, but after reaching a 15-year high of just 28.2 percent on the Baseball Writers Association ballot, Mattingly earned eight votes (of 12 needed) on the last ballot of the contemporary era in 2022, and after all the renewed exposure and accolades he got during the World Series, I suspect he’ll do even better this time.