Whenever a baseball season comes to an end, there is always the term known as, “Black Monday,” where managers in MLB and coaches in the NFL learn their fate, if not earlier before, if they will either be retained or fired after a team usually has a down year. There are a few teams I believe will be making managerial changes after the 2018 season comes to an end.
- Who Will Be Let Go?
1.) Mike Scioscia- Los Angeles Angels
Mike Scioscia has been at the helm of the Los Angeles Angels since the 2000 season and is the longest tenured manager in Major League Baseball. Overall, been a good manager.
Some of his accomplishments with the Angels feature the 2002 World Series championship, the first in franchise history, appearances in the American League Championship Series in 2005 and 2009 and a total of seven postseason appearances (2002, 2004, 2005, 2007-09, 2014).
However, I look at the entire snapshot of his tenure and it is sort of checkered. Outside of the World Series championship and the runs to the ALCS, there really hasn’t been much consistency at Angel Stadium in Orange County. The Angels had a stacked lineup that featured guys like Chone Figgins, Maicer Izturis, Bobby Abreu, Torii Hunter, Vladimir Guerrero, Jeff Mathis and starters in John Lackey, Joe Saunders and Jered Weaver, but could never haul in a championship within that timeframe.
In each of the years the Angels have won the division and went to the playoffs, they’ve compiled seasons of 95+ wins and had been a force in the AL West division, before the likes of Oakland and Texas, who pretty much ran that division from time spans of 2010-2013 and 2015 through last season. They haven’t had a good season since the 2014 team that clinched the AL West, the year I thought they had a shot to go far, before bumping into the Wild Card and red hot Kansas City Royals.
They did add Albert Pujols prior to the 2012 season and while he has continued to rack up home runs and be in the Halos lineup, he hasn’t done much of anything lately and he isn’t getting younger. He’s been at first base and the designated hitter since he joined the Halos, after leaving the St. Louis Cardinals, who came off their 2011 World Series championship, along with Tony La Russa retiring as manager.
They were always a great hitting team, but they have sort of dwindled over the years. They are a force, but they are not one that has come together in times of the postseason to win games in the biggest moments, like in 2005 and 2009, where they battled in the American League Championship Series, but couldn’t quite win the big games and falling short of the ultimate goal of the World Series.
He is well-respected throughout the game by many, along with being a catcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, a member of the 1981 and 1988 championship teams.
I am personally surprised that Scioscia has remained Angels skipper despite the inconsistencies in between the magical seasons. There had a rumor he was going to step down at the end of the 2018 season and he has denied it, saying he will still remain manager of the team he’s been at since 2000. Although he is the longest tenured manager in MLB, I feel that title will no longer be of his once the season ends in Anaheim.
2.) Scott Servais- Seattle Mariners
I included Scott Servais on here only because of the current situation the Mariners are in. They are in contention for the American League West division, which is pretty much deadlocked between the defending World Series champion Houston Astros and the resurgent Oakland Athletics, making their quest for the division quite a challenge with Oakland being hot since June 17.
Servais was hired prior to the 2016 season by newly-hired general manager Jerry Dipoto, after the team cleaned house and fired former manager Lloyd McClendon after the season. Former general manager Jack Zduriencik was fired on August 28, 2015, a major indicator that Seattle would be making several changes after another failed season. They haven’t been in the MLB playoffs since 2001, when they reached the American League Championship Series.
The Mariners have an upgraded lineup for Servais which features Mitch Haniger, Dee Gordon, Jean Segura, Nelson Cruz, Robinson Cano and Mike Zunino.
Seattle lost Robinson Cano to an 80-game suspension for PED use on May 15 and he didn’t return to the team for another three months until August 15, which hurts the Mariners. Cano is ineligible to participate in the playoffs, which takes away a source of power for the Mariners. While Cano can play in the regular season, he can only watch from the clubhouse if his team can get in the postseason.
They missed the playoffs in both the years Servais has run the team, including the records of 86-76 in 2016 and 78-84 last season, not enough to get in.
They have continued to hang around the race and showed signs of a turnaround campaign, but as of Friday, September 7, 2018, they are currently 5.5 games behind the Oakland Athletics for the second wild card spot. They missed the playoffs in both of Scott Servais’ two seasons and could be heading towards a third one if they are unable to pick it up.
There had recently been a reported scrum in the Mariners clubhouse in early September involving Dee Gordon and Jean Segura, which could be common since you’re around each other from February to late October, if a team gets hot and plays deep into the postseason. When stuff like that happens, that could be an indicator that the manager has lost the clubhouse and fights cloud a team’s reputation, along with the manager’s.
For example, Matt Williams lost the Washington Nationals clubhouse after a reported scrum between Bryce Harper and Jonathan Papelbon, where Papelbon appeared to put Harper in a headlock and players scramming in the dugout to break it up. It was not a good look for the team, as the Mets took that division by storm and Williams was fired once the season was over. The clubhouse incident that occurred at Safeco Field will overshadow him once the season is over.
There is still a month to go in the regular season, but if this Mariners team is unable to get in or falls off completely, you could be seeing the end of the Scott Servais tenure in Seattle.
3.) Jeff Banister- Texas Rangers
Jeff Banister was hired to revive the Texas Rangers, who came off a dismal 2014 season where Ron Washington resigned in September to tend to personal issues.
In his first season at the helm, things looked bright as the Rangers clinched the American League West division title, the first since the run from 2010-2011 and a first round date with the Toronto Blue Jays, who were a surprise, clinching the American League East, another one of those rare, “No Yankees nor Red Sox winning the division” type of seasons.
After taking the first two games in a tough Rogers Centre, the door was right there for the Rangers to slam it shut and punch their ticket to the American League Championship Series and they got in trouble on their home field. After taking Game 1 of the series 5-3, Texas outdueled Toronto 6-4 in a 14-inning affair in Game 2 and looked poised to go homr in front of energized fans to clinch the series.
As quickly as the chance came, it went away. The Blue Jays took Game 3 by a 5-1 score and stormed past them in Game 4, winning 8-1 to force the winner-take-all Game 5 back in a very electric Rogers Centre. Texas held a 3-2 lead after 6 1/2 innings to play and were nine more outs away from advancing. Hamels ran into trouble and Sam Dyson couldn’t clean it up, giving up a monumental three-run home run to Jose Bautista, which will always be remembered because of his iconic bat flip.
Toronto won the game 6-3, leaving Texas on the wrong side of history, as one who failed to win the series after holding a 2-0 lead, first time since the 2012 Reds. The 2017 Indians would join that category as well.
2016 presented more promise for the Rangers, where they finished 95-67 and clinched home-field advantage in the playoffs. The year ended with another sour taste, losing to the Wild Card winning Toronto Blue Jays in a sweep, dashing more hopes for the franchise to try and turn it around.
The Rangers haven’t seen the playoffs since then and were just eliminated from contention a few nights ago. They also recently fired their Director of Baseball Operations, Matt Vinnola on August 31 after almost a decade with the team, foreshadowing what could be some changes to come. The Rangers sold some key players at the deadline, including starter Cole Hamels to the Chicago Cubs, reliever Jake Diekman to the Arizona Diamondbacks and reliever Keone Kela to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Those trades are a sign that a team has thrown in the towel and playing to see who will stay within the lineup in the future. I am not so sure that future will include Jeff Banister for that reason. The ballclub had their chances to get back on the map during those two good seasons with Banister at the helm, but they haven’t done anything good since those two division titles.
4.) John Gibbons- Toronto Blue Jays
John Gibbons is currently in the sixth season of his second stint as skipper of the Toronto Blue Jays and there has not been much excitement for the Blue Jays in Rogers Centre. The Blue Jays have finished in the bottom of the AL East division for all but of two seasons, in 2015 and 2016, their lone playoff appearances under his helm, where the Blue Jays made the American League Championship Series, but couldn’t quite take home an AL pennant.
2016 was another impressive year, winning the Wild Card game on a walk-off
2017 and 2018 have been disastrous seasons, featuring the Blue Jays near the area of last place in the American League East division, especially with the rebirth of the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, who both had remarkable 2018 seasons in the division against the competition of the league.
This year saw the Blue Jays sell every decent player they had along the way. Among those names included J.A. Happ (Yankees), Josh Donaldson (Indians), Curtis Granderson (Brewers), Roberto Osuna (Astros), Steve Pearce (Red Sox), Seunghwan Oh (Rockies), Aaron Loup (Phillies) and John Axford (Dodgers). All of these big names going shows that the Blue Jays hit the reset button and are focused on their future with the players received, featuring Brandon Drury and Billy McKinney from the Yankees, who could have bright futures for the Blue Jays. They also got Ken Giles in the Osuna deal.
However, these future plans may not include John Gibbons. Things have not been that good in Toronto since the brief magic of 2015 and 2016 and we could see a new skipper take over the helm of the Blue Jays once the season is over.
- Who Will Stay With Respective Teams
1.) Jim Riggleman- Cincinnati Reds
The Cincinnati Reds hit rock bottom after a bad start, starting 3-15 before firing manager Bryan Price on April 19. Riggleman, who most recently was the manager of the Washington Nationals from 2009 before resigning on June 23, 2011, took over the team.
Although playoffs are out of the question for the Reds, they’ve been playing some pretty good baseball under Riggleman. Since his hiring, the Reds have gone 56-67 and have some good players on the roster, including Joey Votto, Matt Harvey (tried to trade him at deadline, but no success), Scooter Gennett, Dilson Herrara, Billy Hamilton and Mason Williams.
While Cincinnati is playing for next year, it gives the manager and coaches a chance to see who could stick around for next year, who they could possibly trade and find ways to get the team better.
2.) Bruce Bochy- San Francisco Giants
I had to include Bruce Bochy because he is a good manager, but it’s just that his team has caught a bad break in each of the past two seasons.
Bochy’s managerial resume includes 12 seasons at the helm of the San Diego Padres from 1995-2006, a tenure that included four divisional titles (1995, 1998, 2005, 2006), a World Series appearance in 1998 and some really good teams in his time. He left the team after 2006 and got the Giants managerial job starting in 2007, replacing the retired Felipe Alou.
Since then, the Giants have won two division titles in 2010 and 2012 and won three World Series championships (2010, 2012, 2014 as a Wild Card team). It took a few years for Bochy and the Giants to make some noise, but 2010 was the first real year they were a force to be reckoned with. Bochy’s Giants defeated the Atlanta Braves in the NLDS before stunning the NL-best Philadelphia Phillies in the NLCS to reach the World Series for the first time since 2002.
Bochy and the Giants rolled past the Texas Rangers in five games, giving the franchise’s first championship since moving to San Francisco, as well as the first one for Bochy. That would be the start of the dynasty for the team. The 2012 playoffs saw the Giants overcome adversity on multiple occasions. They were in an 0-2 hole against the Cincinnati Reds in the NLDS, before San Francisco won three in a row, stunning the otherwise phenomenal Reds team.
They took on the Wild Card winner St. Louis Cardinals and the defending World Series champions had a 3-1 lead and were nine more innings away from another trip back to the Fall Classic. San Francisco won three straight games, including a 9-0 win in Game 7 to punch their ticket to the Fall Classic. The Giants swept the Detroit Tigers to clinch the championship, their second in the past three seasons.
They haven’t seen a consistent playoff run since then. They made the playoffs in 2016, but lost to the Chicago Cubs in four games. 2017 was not as good of a year as it could have been, with starter Madison Bumgarner getting hurt in dirtbike accident that cost him a good portion of that season.
Point being, Bochy is a good manager and the time for the Giants to begin winning again will come, but the Giants will be some rebuilding years ahead and I think Bochy is too well-respected to come into the conversation of losing his job as Giants skipper.
3.) Buck Showalter- Baltimore Orioles
This was a difficult one that I scratched my head on. Buck Showalter has been managing in the league since around 1992 and always seems to be on the wrong side of history. His Baltimore Orioles are riding along the border of having a historically bad season, the worst since the 2003 Detroit Tigers, who finished 43-119. As of September 7, 2018, the O’s stand at 40-98 on the season and are just hoping for the season to end sooner than later.
They traded away a lot of players, including Manny Machado to the Los Angeles Dodgers, Jonathan Schoop to the Milwaukee Brewers, Kevin Gausman and Darren O’Day both to the Atlanta Braves and Zach Britton to the New York Yankees. They committed to a complete and full rebuild and they really did a good job subtracting the big name players to start over.
The question is: Would Buck Showalter want to remain skipper of a team that likely will not be as competitive for the next couple of seasons to come?
He managed the Yankees from 1992-1995 and was osusted after the five-game series loss to the Seattle Mariners. The Yankees hired Joe Torre and won the championship in 1996, along with 1998-2000, completing the dynasty of that era in Yankees history.
He was the manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks from 1998-2000 and was let go after the 2000 season. Of course, the Diamondbacks won their first World Series championship in franchise history in 2001, defeating the New York Yankees in seven games.
He became Orioles skipper in July 2010 and the team broke their playoff drought in 2012, clinching the Wild Card before losing to the Yankees in five games in the ALDS. They captured the AL East division title in 2014, their first one since 1997. They swept the Detroit Tigers to advance to their first American League Championship Series, also since 1997. The Orioles were swept by the Kansas City Royals, who would reach Game 7 of the World Series, succumbing to the San Francisco Giants.
The last real competitive Orioles team came in 2016, where they clinched the second Wild Card spot, losing to the Toronto Blue Jays 5-2 in 11 innings on a walk-off, three-run home run to Edwin Encarnacion.
I’m sure everyone knows Buck Showalter is not at fault for what has happened to the program, but the manager usually always takes the fall, even when ownership is responsible for preparing the teams through free agency and the trade deadlines, to build the best possible teams to compete. I see Buck Showalter maybe getting a pass on this, but in the end, I can see him leaving to explore his options elsewhere.
- Confirmed to Return to Respective Teams
1.) Davey Martinez- Washington Nationals
I am going to say this first and foremost, this is another bad move made by the Washington Nationals management team. Martinez is their third manager in a four-year span (2015-2018) and the team has gotten progressively worse, after struggling to be at the top and being at rock bottom for all those years after the Montreal Expos franchise moved to the Nation’s Capital. They seem like an organization that can dominate in the regular season, but in the big postseason games, they can almost never do anything when called upon to step into the moment.
As a little background leading up to these moments, the first real sign of faith within the team was after Jim Riggleman’s unexpected resignation over a contract dispute that stunned the team on June 23, 2011. Davey Johnson, the manager of the 1986 New York Mets World Championship team, took over the team and the Nationals got better in the second half of that season. They went 42-44 under bench coach John McLaren and then Davey Johnson, finishing the season with an 80-81 record.
In 2012, the Nationals finished 98-64 and home-field advantage in the playoffs. They trailed the defending World Series champion, the Wild Card winning St. Louis Cardinals 2-1 before rallying in Game 4, forcing the winner-take-all contest after Jayson Werth hit a walk-off, solo home run. The Nationals led the Cardinals 7-0 through three full innings before the Cardinals chipped away.
They coughed it up in the top of the ninth inning, especially up 7-5 and three more outs from a trip to the National League Championship Series. Drew Storen was on the mound and things began to unravel with him in the inning after a few batters in. He gave up a leadoff double to Carlos Beltran, who went to third on a grounder. Storen struck out Allen Craig and the Nats needed one elusive out to reach the NLCS. It never happened and here’s how it came apart:
After a pair of walks were issued to Yadier Molina and 2011 World Series MVP David Freese, Daniel Descalso delivered the game-tying, two-out, two-run single, tying the game at 7-7 and a blown save for Storen, who had gotten the closer job from Tyler Clippard. Pete Kozma left the Nationals fans stunned by another two-run single of his own, giving the Cardinals a 9-7 lead. The Birds finished the job with three outs in the bottom half of the inning, ending a promised Nationals postseason run. Was this Davey Johnson’s fault? No. It was the team’s fault. Up by two runs and one out away from advancing, they failed to get the job done. They gave confidence in Drew Storen after he got the closing job from Clippard and failed to do the job.
Johnson retired after the 2013 season and was replaced by Matt Williams, who was a third base coach for the Arizona Diamondbacks. He was a member of the 2001 World Series championship team as a player.
The Nationals won another NL East division title in 2014, but couldn’t overcome the ghosts of the first round, losing to the Wild Card winners and eventual World Series champion San Francisco Giants. This was another instance of not being able to get the job done in the postseason, setting up the reputation of being a failure of a ballclub in the playoffs.
In 2016, Dusty Baker’s first season at the helm of the Nationals, they won another NL East division title, but once again, failing to advance in the postseason, losing to the Los Angeles Dodgers in five games, the deciding game of course, being in Nationals Park. Leading 1-0 for most of the night, the Dodgers struck for a four-run spot in the top of the seventh inning to take a 4-1 lead. The Nationals answered back for two more runs in the bottom half of the inning, but that’s as close as they got towards making a comeback, losing the game 4-3 and the series in five games. Was this Dusty Baker’s fault? No. It was the team’s fault. They failed to complete the comeback in front of their home fans and pretty much continue to have the reputation of a laughingstock in the playoffs.
Another NL East division title came in 2017, but the in-season accolades don’t matter once the postseason comes around. The Nationals were the second seed in the playoffs and faced off against the defending World Series champion Chicago Cubs and the teams dueled in a series that featured a Game 5.
The Nationals had a 4-1 lead through two innings and they completely imploded as the game went along. They led 4-2 after three innings and gave up a four-run spot in the top of the fifth inning. They trailed by as much as 8-4, before taking advantage of a few Cubs miscues, making it hopeful this could be the year the curse finally ends. Guess what? It didn’t. The Nationals lost to the Cubs 9-8 and another great season was wasted. Dusty Baker was fired eight days after that.
While I agree with the Matt Williams firing, I do not agree with what they did to Dusty Baker, a man who is well-respected in the game of baseball. They hired Baker to replace the ousted Williams on November 3, 2015. He did good as a manager, leading the 2002 San Francisco Giants to the World Series, coming up just short to the Anaheim Angels in seven games.
They rushed to fire him after they won two NL East titles and they have completely ruined Bryce Harper’s career. They could have won at least World Series championship if they were more of a complete team in the postseason, which they aren’t.
The Nationals will likely miss the playoffs in 2018 and they have no one to blame but themselves. Their window of making the playoffs is going to slam shut and they will be back to the darker days of Nationals baseball in Washington, DC.
***So, for all those baseball fans and friends of mine! Do you agree/disagree with my picks? Do you want to debate/argue/add any additional ones you feel that I’ve missed?***
***Add your thoughts in the comments below!***
