USA TODAY International Edition
Molitor firing proves loyalty no longer exists in the major leagues
Loyalty no longer exists in baseball, and sentimentalism disappeared ages ago. Major League Baseball has turned cutthroat. You better win, and better keep on winning, or baby, you are gone. A year ago, Paul Molitor was winning the American League manager of the year award, taking a team that had lost 103 games the previous season and leading the Minnesota Twins to the wild-card game against the New York Yankees. He was even rewarded with a three-year contract. Today, he is unemployed. The Twins informed Molitor in an emotional meeting Tuesday morning that he was fired. Oh, he was offered a job to stay on as a special assistant, but that’s only a public relations ploy. Molitor is getting paid anyway, so please don’t insult him. Forget that he’s a Hall of Famer, producing 3,319 hits, the 10th most in baseball history. Forget that he’s a native of the Twin Cities, attending Cretin-Durham High School in St. Paul and the University of Minnesota. It didn’t even matter that he’s owed $3.25 million through 2020. The Twins, with a severely flawed team, finished with a 78-84 record, 13 games behind the powerful Cleveland Indians, and Molitor is gone. Really. He is the fifth manager to be shown the door since opening day, joining Bryan Price of Cincinnati, Mike Matheny of St. Louis, Jeff Bannister of Texas, John Gibbons of Toronto and Mike Scioscia of the Los Angeles Angels. Buck Showalter of the Baltimore Orioles, whose contract expired, is expected to be the next manager dismissed, while Jim Riggleman has not been told whether he’ll be back in Cincinnati. It’s so crazy out there that Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who led L.A. to Game 7 of the World Series a year ago, still doesn’t have a contract for next season. The Dodgers have yet to even exercise his $1.1 million option in 2019. If the Dodgers don’t get out of the first round against the Atlanta Braves, he could be gone. There are even whispers in Chicago that manager Joe Maddon’s fate could hinge on Tuesday’s NL Wild Card game against the Colorado Rockies. He is owed $6 million next season and wants to stay much longer, but if the Cubs don’t reach the World Series, an extension seems highly unlikely. Former Cubs infielder and MLB analyst Mark DeRosa, who turned down a coaching job on the Cubs’ staff last winter, could be the manager-in-waiting if Maddon doesn’t get his extension. Welcome to the new and ugly managerial carousel where no one is safe, and more than half of today’s managers aren’t even making out their own lineup. Managers show up to their offices and the lineups are already on their desks, done by the front office. There are managers who not only are being instructed what relievers to bring into games, but which ones to warm up in the bullpen. It’s the new wave of baseball, leaving managers two choices: Embrace it, or you’re out.