Evaluating Managers On The Hot Seat

Ah yes, September baseball. The second most intense part of the season, littered with close division races and crazy Wild Card finishes. As Sept. 1 arrives, the playoffs start to loom over the league. The feeling of finality clouds the minds of teams competing for a playoff spot and those who may have tough front office decisions to make this offseason.

For the teams already eliminated from the playoffs and those trending that way but not mathematically eliminated, we start to look at what went wrong and how to fix it. Usually, the first place to look is the manager. Some teams this season went on long losing streaks, and some didn’t live up to the playoff aspirations. Is that all a manager’s fault? Maybe not, but nothing stops a baseball owner or general manager from getting over emotional and firing a manager anyway. This article will break down the managers that are most likely on the hot seat this coming offseason.

Luis Rojas

I give Rojas credit because he was never supposed to be the manager of the New York Mets. He was a last-minute replacement after the Houston Astros cheating scandal involved Carlos Beltrán. Despite his hardships, the epic August collapse that saw the Mets go entire weeks without gaining a lead in a game is a death note to his job. They fell from first to third place in the NL East. The entire team suddenly can’t hit or pitch, and they’ve fired multiple bench coaches already. Owner Steve Cohen will not be OK with complacency. Rojas will be fired this offseason.

Rocco Baldelli

Baldelli had a good team that fell apart on him for no apparent reason. It didn’t help that back in April, Baldelli said the Minnesota Twins early-season slump was “all part of the plan” to create an “underdog narrative.” Unfortunately, they never got it together and are now in last place of the AL Central. I think Baldelli’s job security is up in the air, as he never coached at any level before taking this job. He is two years removed from managing this team to a 100-win season, but the front office might chalk it up as a fluke and not trust Baldelli to rebuild the team.

Brandon Hyde

It’s always tough to measure the temperature of a manager’s hot seat when the team is supposed to be one of the worst in baseball. There was no way around the Baltimore Orioles having a lousy season. Although if you go on a 19-game losing streak, it becomes hard to imagine that you won’t get the boot. Add in that the Orioles will probably lose 100 games this season, and it wouldn’t be shocking to see Hyde out as manager. In Hyde’s defense, we did see young players like OF Cedric Mullins and IF/OF Ryan Mountcastle begin to break out this season. Hyde is also on a three-year contract that would cost the Orioles a couple of million dollars to terminate.

Joe Maddon

Maddon is one of the most overrated managers in baseball. He has a reputation as this guru that can help you win a World Series title. I still to this day question his moves in Game 7 of the 2016 World Series. It doesn’t help that the Los Angeles Angels have been one of the most consistently mediocre teams over the past decade. They are the literal embodiment of a .500 team any given year. If the purpose of bringing in Maddon was to produce a winning season and maybe a playoff run, he isn’t making it happen this year. With OF Mike Trout and SP/DH Shohei Ohtani being two of the best players in the game right now, it’s terrible to see the team not garner any on-field success.

Derek Shelton 

The Pittsburgh Pirates season pretty much ended when Javier Báez escaped a rundown between first and home. While the verdict is still out on Shelton’s ability as a manager, I question how bad the team would have to be for him to be fired. Pirates general manager Ben Cherington seems fine with the job that Shelton has done.

“Love the passion and intention that the group brings to those activities every day,” Cherington said during a zoom call with reporters.

I understand giving a manager the ability to grow a clubhouse culture, and Shelton has plenty of coaching experience. Still, it looks like Pittsburgh is nowhere close to completing their rebuild. They are the league’s laughingstock. If they want to succeed again, front office management can’t be too relaxed with such an inferior team.

Torey Lovullo

Another team that is competing for worst in the league is the Arizona Diamondbacks. The D-backs are just starting to turn from the mediocre team they were into a fully rebuilding one. They were good back in 2017, in Lovullo’s first season as manager. He made the playoffs with a loaded team that the Los Angeles Dodgers swept in the NLDS. I assume that’s why he hasn’t been fired yet. Looking at that 2017 roster, they had OF A.J. Pollock, OF/DH J.D. Martinez, 1B Paul Goldschmidt and RHP Zack Greinke. Unfortunately, none of those players are on the team any longer. Arizona traded Martinez in 2018, and that seemed to be the downfall of all their success. Now, they are about to post a 100-loss season and their fourth straight missed postseason. For the second consecutive year, the D-backs have finished in last place in the NL West, and even when they finished second in the division in 2019, they were 21 games out of first place. It’s time for Arizona to embrace the rebuild, and a roster reset will probably include a reset at manager as well.

The Verdict

While some manager firings are more guaranteed than others, there’s no doubt the people on this list are starting to feel the pressure of being fired. Baseball is a weird sport; there can be no rhyme or reason why a good team or player stops performing well. It can be wrong to blame and fire one man for a whole team’s misfortune, but that’s all part of being the manager of a baseball team. As the offseason becomes closer and closer, the frustration of losing teams will cost managers their jobs.

Cover photo courtes of Rich Schultz/Getty Images