Analyzing baseball’s new managers
The Nationals can’t hire a manager unless he’s a former Giant. Matt Williams, Dusty Baker and now Dave Martinez, a San Francisco outfielder on the 103-win team in 1993.
That’s when Baker was a first-year manager and Williams was the cleanup hitter.
Twenty-four years later, the game has changed to the extent that winning isn’t enough for managers. Baker was fired from his Washington gig after a 97-win season, just as Boston’s John Farrell was fired after 93 wins and the Yankees’ Joe Girardi after 91 wins.
The three playoff teams in the East dumped their on-field leaders, and it’s not as if they’re being replaced with other experienced managers. Neither Martinez nor Boston’s Alex Cora has managed in the majors or minors, and the Yankees could go the same route with their hire. It’s a copycat league, after all.
These are further examples of front offices going after younger, more analytic managers to follow the script from upstairs. It’s not that the older managers can’t adjust to incorporating new analytic data. It’s that front offices are more comfortable with younger managers they can groom to their liking.
It’s apparently working with the Dodgers and Astros, the last teams standing. Dave Roberts and A.J. Hinch are all in with permitting the front office to be part of on-field decisions. Meddling used to be frowned upon and disrespectful. Now it’s encouraged, even by owners.
Unfortunately, Baker and the others are victims. If Martinez managed the Nationals in the Division Series, would Gio Gonzalez not have gotten rocked in Game 5? Would Max Scherzer not have coughed up four runs in his relief inning?
Both Martinez and Cora, as bench coaches with the Cubs and Astros, came from teams on the cutting edge of modern analytics, as did Gabe Kapler, the new Phillies manager who was the Dodgers’ director of player development, and Mickey Callaway, the new Mets manager who was Cleveland’s pitching coach.
The Tigers? They went old school with Ron Gardenhire, 59, who’ll oversee a total rebuild.
Will the younger managers be better than their predecessors? That’s asking a lot. Meantime, we can only wonder which ex-Giant the Nationals will hire to replace Martinez.