Managers Of Under-Performing Clubs Land On Hot Seat As Baseball All-Star Break Approaches

The arrival of the All-Star Game – when Major League Baseball takes a breather from its 162-game schedule – gives clubs a chance to evaluate their own performances. Those that are dissatisfied often place the blame on the manager, since it’s easier to fire one man than 26 players.

Money hardly matters, since managers usually earn seven-figure salaries but are not paid as much as their top players. Dave Roberts of the Los Angeles Dodgers is reputed to be the highest-paid pilot at $6.5 million.

So far this season, none of the 30 pilots have been dismissed, though that may be about to change – even though team owners hate to pay two managers in the same season.

Any move that improves team fortunes, however, will be considered, as the Marlins showed in 2003 when they replaced Jeff Torborg with Jack McKeon and turned a mid-season losing record into a world championship.

There are certainly plenty of available managerial replacements – including 14 former managers now in uniform as bench coaches or third-base coaches.

One team – the Atlanta Braves – even has two former managers serving as coaches: bench coach Walt Weiss, manager of the Colorado Rockies from 2012-2016, and third base coach Ron Washington, who took the Texas Rangers to the World Series during his tenure as manager from 2007-2014.

Other National League teams employing ex-managers as coaches include the Arizona Diamondbacks (Jeff Banister), Chicago Cubs (Andy Green), Colorado Rockies (Mike Redmond), Los Angeles Dodgers (Bob Geren), San Diego Padres (Matt Williams), and Washington Nationals (Tim Bogar, who managed the 2014 Rangers for 22 games after Washington resigned).

In the American League, Baltimore bench coach Fredi Gonzalez managed both the Braves and the Miami Marlins, while new Toronto Blue Jays bench coach Don Mattingly also ran two teams, the Marlins and Los Angeles Dodgers.

Minnesota bench coach Jayce Tingler, like Green, once managed in San Diego, while Seattle third-base coach Manny Acta previously served as field general for Washington and Cleveland.

Luis Rojas, current third base coach for the New York Yankees, didn’t even have to move after his dismissal as manager of the New York Mets, but Charlie Montoyo did. Dumped as manager in Toronto, he hooked on as bench coach for the Chicago White Sox.

Even though coaches often get first dibs on managerial vacancies, managers like having former managers on their staffs because of the experience they bring to the job. Mattingly and Williams, for example, were Managers of the Year. So were the recently-fired Joe Maddon and Joe Girardi, both hoping to get another shot at a job.

Few seasons pass without at least a handful of managerial casualties.

With the notable exception of Connie Mack, who also happened to own the Philadelphia Athletics team he managed, pilots have such precarious job security that a common baseball cliche suggests managers are hired to be fired.

The Chicago Cubs even decided the job was too much for one man. In 1961, owner P.K. Wrigley created a rotating board of head coaches – a never-before-tried concept that failed to improve the team during its five-year run. Only after future Hall of Famer Leo Durocher was lured out of retirement did the Cubs become contenders.

Years later, volatile Billy Martin had a record five terms as manager of the Yankees, whose owner George Steinbrenner was never known as a man of unlimited patience. Martin once said he succeeded by keeping the five guys who hated him away from the five who were undecided.

Wally Backman lasted even less time: four days as manager of the 2004 Arizona Diamondbacks after off-the-field legal troubles caught up with him.

And Carlos Beltran spent 77 days as manager of the New York Mets – never actually running a game – when he was implicated in the 2017 World Series electronic sign-stealing scandal involving the Houston Astros. The scheme was exposed in 2020.

Mack managed the A’s for 50 years, starting with the advent of the American League in 1901, and set the record for wins, losses, and games managed in the major leagues. But his teams, which survived competition from the Federal League and economic distress during The Great Depression, lost 217 more games than they won. Mack was 89 when he finally yielded his seat in the dugout.

Of the managers now active, age could also play a part in their longevity. Houston’s Dusty Baker, the dean of current pilots at age 74, took five teams to the playoffs but never won a World Series ring as a manager until 2022.

The next oldest manager in the majors, Bruce Bochy of the Texas Rangers, was lured out of retirement with a lucrative three-year contract even though he turned 68 in April and brought a losing record (2,003-2,029) to the job.

Bochy has more world championships (3) than any other active manager, winning all with the San Francisco Giants. Regarded as a master of the quick fix, he inherited a club that finished fourth, 38 games off the pace in the AL West last year, and took it to the top of the division this season — so far at least.

Atlanta’s Brian Snitker, the oldest National League manager, hopes to celebrate his 68th birthday in October with his sixth straight divisional crown and another world championship.

Snitker, old enough to be the grandfather of most of his players, is just a year older than Buck Showalter of the New York Mets.

Living proof that managing isn’t easy, Showalter has been Manager of the Year four times (including 2022) without ever winning a pennant.

Armed with a $377 million payroll, by far the biggest in baseball, Showalter has come under fire from fans and media who were hoping he’d repeat his 101-win season of 2022. He’s in the second season of a three-year contract tendered by Steve Cohen, the wealthiest owner in the major leagues.

Jon Heyman of The New York Post reported that the deal Showalter signed on Jan. 26, 2022 had a total value of $11.25 million, making him one of the highest-paid pilots in the game. But money doesn’t always buy happiness.

Showalter might need to heed the advice Birdie Tebbetts gave Bobby Bragan after the old Milwaukee Braves changed managers in 1963. Bragan found two letters on his desk. Letter No. 1 read, “Blame it on me.” Months later, as the team still struggled, he opened Letter No. 2. It said, “Prepare two letters.”