I got an email from a friend/reader late last week asking a simple question:
“Why don’t you identify [MLB] managers who are on a hot seat? You do that for the NFL and sometimes for college football coaches.”
My original answer to the question was very simple; somehow, it had never occurred to me to do so. I resolved to spend a little time over the weekend compiling such a list for this morning. In so doing, I came to realize that my list had two distinct categories:
- Managers of teams with high expectations which might underachieve those expectations.
- Managers of BAD teams who could not win with any manager on the job.
In the first category above, I think there are two managers whose seats are cool as can be as of this morning but could become very hot if their teams falter:
- Aaron Boone (Yankees): The Yankees are always expected to win and to compete for World Series Championships. The last time the Yankees won the Series was in 2009 and they have not been back to the Series since then. Boone has been the manager since 2018 so the pressure to win with a loaded roster is real. The Yankees are off to a hot start at 15-7; at this pace they project to win 110 games this year – – which is not realistic. But in 2023, the Yankees only won 82 games and Boone needs to improve significantly over that number.
- Dave Roberts (Dodgers): In his 8-year tenure with the team, Roberts has had the Dodgers in the playoffs every year and the Dodgers won a World Series in that timespan. In the last 4 full seasons – – ignoring the truncated 2020 season – – the Dodgers have won 100 or more games. However, this winter the Dodgers added Tyler Glasnow, Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto to that team that routinely wins 100 games or more in a season. As of this morning, the Dodgers’ record is 13-11 which projects to 88 wins for the season – – which is also not a realistic outcome. But if it comes to pass …
The second category of managers on a hot seat are the guys in charge of bad baseball teams and someone must be “held accountable” for such badness and the accountability is not going to extend to the owner’s box or even to the GM in most cases. So here are three managers whose teams are probably going to be bad enough to put the manager’s job in jeopardy:
- Bud Black (Rockies): The Rockies lost 103 games last year; they are 5-17 so far this year. ‘Nuff said…
- Pedro Grifol (White Sox): The team lost 101 games in 2023 and have lost 18 of their first 21 games so far in 2024. The Sox have averaged only 2.1 runs scored per game in 2024 indicating that recovery from such a disastrous start to the season is unlikely.
- Mark Kotsay (A’s): In the two years prior to this one, the A’s have lost 102 games and then 112 games on Kotsay’s watch. Ignore the fact that the owner does not spend nearly enough to field a competitive team; the owner will not fire himself. Another triple-digits in the loss column in 2024 could see Kotsay out of a job.
And speaking of the Oakland A’s and their less-than-wonderful ownership, the team has apparently figured out what it will do for a home field after this season is over and its lease to play in the Oakland Coliseum – or whatever they are calling it this month – expires. The team intends to move to Las Vegas in 2028. I say “intends to move” because there is no stadium for it there and work has not yet begun on constructing one. But for the moment, I will try to keep a good thought; the team announced that it will play its home games between 2025 and 2027 in Sacramento.
The stadium there – – Sutter Health Park – – is the home field for the minor league Sacramento River Cats meaning that the two teams will need to interleave their schedules for the summer months. The groundskeeping crew for the stadium will certainly earn their pay over the next few years as the stadium will see action for 81 A’s home games plus 75 River Cats’ home games. The stadium capacity is listed as 14,000 but there should be an asterisk on that number because it includes “lawn seating” in the outfield. [Aside: To be fair, many minor league stadiums include that feature.] As is to be expected, the A’s are not drawing flies in Oakland this season. In fact, the average attendance for the A’s in 13 home games this year is a measly 6,244 diehard fans. Last year, the A’s averaged a meager 10,672 fans per game meaning that for last year and so far this year, the attendance in Oakland would fit nicely into the minor league facility in Sacramento.
Finally, since today has been about baseball, let me close with this observation by Yogi Berra on the occasion of Joe DiMaggio’s marriage to Marilyn Monroe:
“I don’t know if it’s good for baseball, but it beats the hell out of rooming with Phil Rizzuto.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………