Today, three new MLB managers were hired while one was fired.
The Cleveland Guardians announced that former big league catcher Stephen Vogt will be their new manager and has signed a three-year contract through the 2026 season. Vogt, who turned 39 on November 1st, spent 11 seasons in MLB with the Tampa Bay Rays, Oakland A's, Milwaukee Brewers, San Francisco Giants, Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta Braves before returning to Oakland to finish his playing career in 2022. More than half of his playing career was spent in Oakland where he was named to back-to-back AL All-Star squads in 2015 and 2016.
During the 2023 season, Vogt was the bullpen and quality control coach. Vogt succeeds Terry Francona who stepped down due to health issues. Francona is the Cleveland's winningest manager in franchise history. Although Vogt has no previous managerial experience, he was highly regarded by former A's manager and now Giants manager Bob Melvin as a future big-league manager.
Following Buck Showalter's dismissal from the New York Mets, it was widely expected that the Mets would pick Milwaukee Brewers manager Craig Counsell to succeed him given his connections with New York Mets President David Stearns who held the same role in Milwaukee until joining the Mets last month.
However, Counsell threw a curve and has opted to stay in the NL Central and take over the Chicago Cubs. This means David Ross was shown the door. Ross succeeded Joe Maddon as Cubs manager prior to the COVID shortened 2020 season during which the Cubs reached the post-season. After two lackluster seasons in 2021 and 2022, the Cubs showed life in 2023 especially during the second half of the season.
Between July 21st and September 6th, the Cubs went 32-15 and were within 1.5 games of Counsell's Brew Crew in the NL Central and were also 1.5 games behind the Philadelphia Phillies for top spot in the NL Wild Card. But then the Cubs would lose 15 of their final 22 games with the eventual NL Champion Arizona Diamondbacks wresting the final NL Wild Card spot from them. Indeed, the D'Backs beat the Cubs six out of seven times in September. That the Cubs would finish with a winning record of 83-79, a 9-game improvement over last season, was not enough to save Ross his job.
If nothing else, hiring Counsell will certainly make Cubs-Brewers games more interesting especially when they take place in Milwaukee. However, Brewers fans must feel about Counsell now he leaves the club their winningest manager in franchise history although he could not lead the team to a NL pennant.
So, with Counsell unavailable to the Mets, they have gone across town and plucked New York Yankees bench coach Carlos Mendoza to be their new skipper. The Venezuelan born Mendoza has been with the Yankees organization since 2009 and was promoted to their big-league coaching staff in 2017 as an infield coach before becoming bench coach prior to the COVID shortened 2020 season. Like Vogt, he is an unknown quantity although he comes with considerably more experience as a coach on the big-league level and a manager on the minor league level.
There are now four managerial vacancies - two in the AL (Houston Astros and Los Angeles Angels) and two in the NL (San Diego Padres and the Milwaukee Brewers).
No comments:
Post a Comment