Legendary MLB manager offers this advice to historic class of newbies

PHOENIX — They will be packing their bags, practicing their introductory speeches, and arriving in a few days early to spring training camps from West Palm Beach, Florida to Surprise, Arizona.

They are young. They have little or no experience.

They make up Major League Baseball’s incoming managerial class.

Ten managers have been hired since the end of last season.

And just like the NFL’s coaching carousel, none are Black.

Four have never managed a game – even in the minor leagues. One has never even coached a game outside of college.

One is in his 30s. Eight are in their 40s. One is in his 50s.

The newbies will be scrutinized, dissected, questioned and debated all season.

“There’s going to be a lot of people watching,’ future Hall of Fame manager Dusty Baker, now a special advisor for the San Francisco Giants, tells USA TODAY Sports. “A lot of people are wondering if they can do it. We’re all going to find out.’

Three of the new managers – Skip Schumaker (Texas), Walt Weiss (Atlanta) and Derek Shelton (Minnesota) – had previous MLB managerial experience.

Two of the managers – Don Kelly (Pittsburgh) and Warren Schaeffer Colorado) – were interim managers last season, and proved to their front offices and ownership that they were deserving of being promoted to full time.

But for the other five rookie managers, it’s a whole new ballgame.

Los Angeles Angels manager Kurt Suzuki, 42, played for 16 years and was a special assistant in the front office, but also never coached or managed.

Craig Albernaz, 43, of the Baltimore Orioles, is the most traditional hire of those with no experience, spending five years in the minor leagues and five years as a major-league coach.

MLB divided on Tony Vitello hire

Vitello becomes the first college coach to immediately transition to a major-league manager with no professional coaching experience. He was an assistant collegiate coach for 15 years, and a head coach for eight years at the University of Tennessee.

He also was rewarded as the highest-paid first-year manager in baseball history, earning $3.5 million a year for the next three seasons.

“It’s a bold move,’ says Baker, who met with Vitello and talked to him about the challenges of managing before he was hired. “That was my first thought.’

Joe Maddon, who led the Chicago Cubs to the 2016 World Series championship, had another thought.

‘Quite frankly, I’m using the word insulting,’ Maddon told KNBR radio in San Francisco after the hire, “only from the perspective that it appears as though you don’t have to have any kind of experience on a professional level to do this job anymore.

‘When I was coming up, you had to have all that. You had to, like, go through the minor leagues. You had to ride buses. I was a scout. I started in 1981. I finally get a managerial job in 2006. I mean, there was a rite of passage, a method to get to that point.

“To think that somebody could just jump in there and do it, you took 20-some years to be considered qualified to do, it is kind of insulting.’

So, will it work? And will this be the wave of the future?

Buckle up, we’re about to find out.

Newbie managers have strong recent track record

“It’s certainly going to be challenging for them,’ says Ernie Whitt, a 15-year MLB catcher and manager of Team Canada in the World Baseball Classic. “Some of them come from good college baseball backgrounds, but to be at the highest level, and never experienced any type of managing at that level, or even in the minor leagues, that’s going to be tough.

‘The game speeds up on you in a hurry.’

It’s hardly as if young, inexperienced managers have no prayer to succeed.

You don’t have to look any further than Steven Vogt of the Cleveland Guardians. He spent 11 years as a big-league catcher, and after just one year as the Seattle Mariners’ bullpen and quality control coach, was hired to manage the Guardians before the 2024 season.

Two years later, he has twice led the Guardians to the AL Central title, and twice been honored as the American League Manager of the Year.

Aaron Boone had never managed or coached in the major leagues or minors when he was hired before the 2018 season by the Yankees. He has led the Yankees to the postseason in seven of the eight years, including a World Series appearance.

Dave Roberts, who has the greatest winning percentage (.621) of any manager in history with at least 850 games – along with three World Series titles – had only one game of managerial experience at any level before being hired to lead the Dodgers 10 years ago. Yet, he did have experience being on on the Padres’ coaching staff for five years.

Work hard to find for experienced MLB coaches

“I just feel sorry for the number of players that need these jobs and they’re not available,’ Baker says. “You’d be surprised how many calls from guys who are White, Black, who say they need a job, can’t get one. Now, if you’re a former [big-league] player, it’s almost like a detriment. Teams are going with inexperienced guys, even college guys, looking for guys elsewhere to fill these jobs.’

Says Whitt: “Guys go through the trenches as a manager in the minors just to have a chance, and for them not to get an opportunity is tough to see. I don’t understand it. I know guys are relying on analytics, but you still have to have a feel for the game. You let your eyes tell you what’s going on.’’

Davey Martinez, who led the Washington Nationals to their first World Series championship in 2019, still can’t believe he didn’t receive a single phone call to interview for a vacancy.

Brandon Hyde, the AL Manager of the Year in 2023 after leading the Baltimore Orioles to 101 wins, got only one interview.

Bruce Bochy, who should be inducted into the Hall of Fame with Baker in 2027, let teams know he was willing to keep managing, but no one called. The Giants eventually hiring him as an advisor.

Even veteran coaches like Eric Young, who was instrumental in Atlanta’s recent dominance in the NL East, didn’t get a call for another coaching job – let alone for a managerial vacancy.

Bo Porter, the former Houston Astros manager and major-league coach with five different organizations, also couldn’t find a job after the Angels turned over its staff.

Gary Pettis, the five-time Gold Glove winner who has coached 26 years and won two World Series titles, remains unemployed after the Astros didn’t re-sign him after the 2024 season.

Dusty Baker sees ‘regression’ on diversity

Just as the NFL went 0-for-10 in hiring a Black head coach in the offseason, so did MLB. There are now just two Black managers (Roberts and Will Venable of the Chicago White Sox) in baseball, and one Black GM (Dana Brown of the Astros).

The only minority candidates who received managerial interviews from more than one team were future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols, who interviewed with the Angels and San Diego Padres; nine-time Gold Glove winner Torii Hunter with the Angels and Twins, and Suzuki, who was the lone minority candidate the Giants interviewed for their vacancy.

“You don’t see a lot of progression,’ Baker says, “you see regression. It’s getting discouraging. Some of the best teachers, some of the most influential people in our lives, are not even in baseball anymore. You can’t turn your back completely on the guys who played. They not only can tell you what to do, but also show you what you can do.

“I don’t see the diversity on coaching staffs, either. I always had Latin guys, Black guys, White guys, country guys. Having a diverse staff helps communication. You need someone to talk to. When you’re the only somebody, it gets lonely sometimes.’

The landscape is filled with strong minority managerial candidates who continue to be on the outside looking in. It makes no sense for someone like Benji Gil, who was born in Tijuana, Mexico, to never be given a chance to be an MLB manager. He played eight years in the major leagues, won a World Series championship with the 2002 Angels, managed the Mexico national team in the Tokyo Olympics, is managing Charros de Jalisco in the Mexican Pacific League, and will manage Team Mexico again in the WBC in March.

Gil, who continually draws rave reviews by everyone from his players to his peers to tournament officials, leading Mexico to a stunning third-place finish in the 2023 WBC, has had only ever had one major-league managerial interview – with the Padres in 2023.

“I believe I’m more than ready,’ Gil says. “I check all of the boxes. As a player, I was on teams that won. I understand winning baseball. I understand culture. I think I do a good job with the media. I don’t think there are many resumes in the last decade that are better than what I’ve done.

“So, I would think that would hopefully encourage somebody to at least consider me, to get in a room with people to see what I’m all about.’

Maybe, Baker says, he should go find the reggae song he was listening to at his home Monday night, and send it to all 30 teams, just so they can to hear the lyric: “Experience is the greatest teacher.’

Then again, the executives whole lot more experience than the managers and coaches they’re hiring.

‘Everybody’s inexperienced’

Jeremy Zoll, promoted just last week to run the Minnesota Twins baseball operations, is 35 years old. He’s the youngest head of baseball operations in MLB.

Buster Posey, the Giants’ president of baseball operations who retired as a player just four years ago, is 38.

Scott Harris, president of baseball operations for the Detroit Tigers, is 39.

And Paul Toboni, hired in November as the Nationals’ new president of baseball operations, turns 36 on Sunday.

The Nationals, who were run by Mike Rizzo, 65, with Martinez, 61, as manager, are now the youngest organization in baseball. Their GM is 31-year-old Anirudh Kilambi. The assistant GMs are Justin Horowitz (34) and Devin Pearson (31). The coaching staff has eight members between the ages of 29 and 39.

Certainly, it’s a risk having precious little experience in the dugout, but then again, it’s not as if the Nationals are going to be matched up against the likes of Joe Torre, Bobby Cox and Tony La Russa night after night.

Four of the game’s most experienced managers are gone with the departures of Bochy, Bob Melvin, Buddy Black and Brian Snitker. There are now just nine managers who have been with their current team for four or more seasons.

“I think the thing that young managers have going for them,’ Baker says, “is how much inexperience the other managers have, too. So, how can you tell one that’s going to be good and one that’s not good if everybody’s inexperienced. The experienced managers had such a tremendous advantage when I came in, but now you have inexperience managing against other inexperience.

“It gives even more credence to the front office and the sabermetrics and being kind of told what to do and how to manage the game.’

There may be fewer than a handful of managers who make out their only lineup each game without heavy front-office interference. If you’ve got little or no experience, are you really going to argue with your bosses?

“I hear that over and over about the lineup being sent down,’ Whitt says. “That’s not a good way to manage. It’s crazy. I wouldn’t manage if I had to do that. If it’s not my thumbprint on it, then I don’t want anything to do with it.

“I mean, analytics are good, don’t get me wrong, but you still have to have a feel for the game. You’ve got to let your eyes tell you what’s going on.’’

The evaluations on this class of managers will begin the first day of spring training. Six months from now, we’ll find out who thrived, who managed to survive, and who succumbed to the pressure.

“The best advice I can give,’ Baker says, “is to just be yourself. You can’t be anybody but you. Now, it’s all up to you.’

Follow Nightengale on X: @Bnightengale