Post 2025 Season Managerial Moves

[MFS62]

Rocco Baldelli fired by the Twins.

Later

[Bob Alpacadaca]

Wow. Not thinking that trainwreck was his fault.

Saw posts about Bob Melvin potentially being out at San Fran and Bruce Bochy coming back for a second tour. Supposedly he and Buster are tight.

[Edgy MD]

I would hope they're tight. Posey won three championships and played nearly his entire Hall-of-Fame-quality career under Bochy.

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

Bochy out in Texas. Offered a front office role. Bob Melvin might start packing boxes.

[Cowtipper]

Don Kelly signed an extension with the Pirates.

[Centerfield]

I’ll tell you. I don’t fully understand what makes a good manager. But there must be something to it. Guys like Bochy. Terry Francona. Dusty Baker. These guys find ways to get their team to win.

Never really thought the Mets needed one of these guys. But maybe there is something to it.

[Lefty Specialist]

They thought they were getting one of those guys with Buck Showalter. Worked for one year, kinda.

[roger_that]

When in doubt, always go for the guy with the best Yankee resume. That always works.

[Cowtipper]

Torey Lovullo will be returning to the D-Backs.

[Bob Alpacadaca]

Bob Melvin gets the ax.

I forgot that the Orioles' managerial spot open as well. Do the Nationals have an interim?

[Edgy MD]

I’ll tell you. I don’t fully understand what makes a good manager.

 

Good for you. I would contend that nobody fully understands it. But many or possibly even most are certain they do. I could be wrong, but experience suggests to be that most fans think they can run their team better than their manager does. I know I do.

On the other hand, I am terrified of people, and shrink from confrontation — especially confrontations with big, aggressive people with big, swinging dongs — so that might negatively affect my managerial performance.

 

But there must be something to it. Guys like Bochy. Terry Francona. Dusty Baker. These guys find ways to get their team to win.

 

Maybe. Seemingly so, at some level. But maybe these are just guys who are in the right place at the right time, when other personnel and other circumstances are producing success. That probably isn't true on the whole, but it is probably true in part.

There are statistical ways to measure performance of players beyond expectation over the course of a manager's tenure, or over the course of a coach's tenure — and you can therefore turn that measure into a model of managing/coaching success — but nobody has done so to my satisfaction. At least, I haven't seen anybody publicly publish such work to my satisfaction. Some teams probably have internal, proprietary measures of such.

[Edgy MD]

Bob Melvin gets the ax.

I forgot that the Orioles' managerial spot open as well. Do the Nationals have an interim?

 

FUN FACT: As they were both Francophonically named catchers with western-division pedigree, and careers as not-quite-starters, but heavy-workload backups — Bob Melvin's and Bruce Bochy's careers get kind of conflated in my mind. As they have both since become long-term (very long-term) managers with western-division pedigree (exclusively so, I think), they kind of have attained a quantum entanglement in my worldview, and to some extent, I credit one with the success of the other — or when one is on the block, I tend to think of the other as endangered as well.

Bruce Melvin has somehow won an amazing 3,930 games in his career.

Bob Bochy, on the other hand, has lost 3,844.

(And yeah, Miguel Cairo is an interim for the time being with Washington.)

[MFS62]

I find managers fall into three main categories:

Good tacticians - They make the moves that work and are successful

Good people persons - the kumbaya types who the players (say they) love

Martinets - the "my way or the highway" types who have a doghouse that is always full.

But sometimes, the public image of a manager who falls into each of those categories may be a misperception of how they really are.

In any event, all three tyles have been successful and all three types have failed. And you can't predict which type is best for a given team.

Then again, what do I know?

Later

[Gwreck]

Snitker (whose contract was up after this season) is leaving the manager role in Atlanta, transitioning to an "advisor" role.

[metirish]

I guess that's a bit of a surprise

[Frayed Knot]

Albert Pujols to interview for Angels managerial job.

[Gwreck]

Albert is already under a 10-year personal services contract with the Angels that began after his retirement.

[Edgy MD]

Another thing about Bochy is that, despite a very impressive three championships in five years with the Giants, and another in 2023 with the Rangers (the only one in team history, he still has an all-time managerial record of 2252–2266 / .498. That's a mere 14 games below .500, and that sort of milestone within reach has a way of keeping a guy going.

As a player, his month or so as 1982 Met was probably the best baseball of his life.

[metirish]

Skip Schumaker new manager for the Texas Rangers Pasen reports, he spent last season as a special assistant there

[MFS62]

In corporate America, managers are told it would be easier to promote them if they have at least two people under them who are capable of moving up into their position.

In baseball, having someone who can move up to replace you makes it easier to replace you when you are asked to leave.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

Former managers David Ross (Cubs) and Walt Weiss (Rox), along with former ATL catcher Eddie Perez, and Mark DeRosa (came up with the Braves and, more recently, Team USA coach in WBC) are said to be leading candidates to helm the Braves going forward.

Since Bobby Cox was named Atlanta Braves skipper 66 games into the 1990 season (replacing Russ Nixon), the Braves have had only three managers: Cox (1990 - 2010), Fredi Gonzalez (2011 - 2016), and Brian Snitker (2016 - 2025)

[Edgy MD]

And that was Cox' second tenure with the team.

My money is going to be on Weiss. The media made him something of a legend in his playing days with Atlanta.

I don't particularly hold the Braves' shortcomings against Snitker, as he isn't personally trying to tear up Ronald Acuña's legs every 15 months or so, but they have had a very Metly thing the last year and a half where an All-Star player can suddenly be the worst hitter in the league for half a season.

[Frayed Knot]

Yeah, IIRC, Cox had gone from managing the Braves, to managing the Jays, to GM'ing the Braves, to his second stint as managing them starting in 1990

... and basically ran that gig straight through to retirement. He's recently had a stroke but is apparently doing reasonable OK.

[Edgy MD]

With John Gibbons leaving the Mets of his own volition, but explicitly not retiring, I would expect he will be among the candidates for the Braves manager posting, as he managed Toronto under Alex Anthopoulos, current Braves general manager.

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

Mike Schildt out in San Diego.

[Frayed Knot]

Mike Schildt out in San Diego.

 

Apparently via his own choice as he cited stress of the job which took a "severe toll" on him.

"It's time I take care of myself and exit on my own terms"

[MFS62]

Hmmmm

I wonder how we can get Mendoza to feel the stress.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

Really! That's what you take from that?

[MFS62]

Yes.

Managing a major league team is stressful. All managers have stress.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

So let's hope he gets enough of it that he'll need to resign for personal/mental/medical reasons!

Grow up!