MLB managers adapt to change
Skippers are now more like salesmen
TAMPA, Fla. — Running a major league team for the first time in four seasons, 60-year-old Ron Gardenhire thought about all the data and video rammed into the microchip of his iPad, a slew of statistics his bosses hope transform defeats into triumphs.
Baseball wasn’t like this four decades ago, when Gardy left college to begin his career as an infield prospect in the low Carolina League, down in Lynchburg, Va.
“If you’re not changing, you’re probably not going to last,” the new Detroit Tigers manager said. “There’s so much information out there. You have to use it.”
“I’m always going to be an oldschool guy. I believe in prep and workouts and all that stuff and taking ground balls,” he added. “But the game has changed, and we’ve got a lot of information that’s going to help us.”
Gone are the days of John McGraw, Leo Durocher, Gene Mauch and Billy Martin, martinets who ran their fiefdoms largely by guts.
“Many of the managers were probably like the general type of personality,” Boston Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said. “They were just very strict: It’s my way. This is the way it is. Not all, but a lot of them. I don’t think that this goes over with this generation the same way. Not only in baseball, but just with the overall population.”
Today’s manager is salesman as much as strategist, digesting behind-the-scenes dissections of dozens and persuading players to accept facts over faith.
“The manager in today’s world is an extension of the front office’s philosophies and the front office’s efforts and someone that you can collaborate and work with,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said.
Gardenhire led Minnesota to six division titles from 2002-14 and was the lone veteran big league manager hired during the offseason.
Boston’s Alex Cora, the New York Mets’ Mickey Callaway, the New York Yankees’ Aaron Boone, Philadelphia’s Gabe Kapler and Washington’s Dave Martinez are all rookie skippers. “The decisions still need to be made — when are you going to hit/run, when are you going to take out the pitcher, when are you going to bunt,” Houston GM Jeff Luhnow said.
“The amount of information available to managers is a multiple larger than it was five years ago, but it doesn’t mean that managers necessarily do anything differently. They still have to look at what’s going on on the field, assess it, use their best judgment and make decisions,” he said.
A decade or two ago, a manager would hear advice from coaches, a GM, an assistant GM and maybe a farm director. These days, the array of front-office titles is expanding like the universe.
The World Series champion Astros have a special assistant to the GM for process improvement who was once a NASA biomathematician, and a senior director in baseball operations for research and innovation.
Boston’s staff includes a vice president of baseball research and development who oversees a director of baseball systems, a senior analyst of baseball R&D, three baseball R&D analysts, two senior developers, an assistant director and a data architect. The Los Angeles Dodgers have five senior analysts and four analysts, plus engineers and technicians.