On Monday, Don Mattingly was named the new manager of the Marlins. He’s the…11th? full-time manager in team history, and will be the 15th man to manage the team at all (which includes a pair of one-game interim managers, Brandon Hyde and Cookie Rojas). If that seems like a lot for a team that has only been in existence since 1993, you’d be correct. Mattingly’s old team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, have only had six full-time managers and one interim manager since Tommy Lasorda retired midway through the 1996 season. Prior to that, Lasorda and Walter Alston were the team’s only two managers from 1954 to 1995. Talk about going from one extreme to another.
But manager instability doesn’t really mean a whole lot, right? After all, the Yankees won four pennants and two World Championships from 1976 to 1981, and they four different managers over those six seasons, which includes two different stints as manager for Bob Lemon and Billy Martin. Considering how much Jeffrey Loria loves the Yankees, maybe he’s just trying to do his best George Steinbrenner impression, right? Right? Guys, where are you going? Am I not allowed to compare George Steinbrenner’s Yankees to Jeffrey Loria’s Marlins?
I digress. There were plenty of interesting quotes from Mattingly, Marlins president David Samson, and Marlins president of baseball ops Michael Hill on Monday. And man, this situation has the possibility to completely implode within a year or two.
Here are the highlights, and some reaction from myself, courtesy of the Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson.
Samson:
We interviewed a lot of capable managers. We [want to] commit this is last manager’s press conference we ever do. We’ve done too many.
The Marlins hired Joe Girardi for the 2006 season, and fired him after a year. They replaced him with Fredi Gonzalez and fired him after three and a half years. Edwin Rodriguez got the job on an interim basis after him, and was relieved of his position after 163 games. After Jack McKeon finished the 2011 season at the helm of the team, Ozzie Guillen took over in 2012 and was fired after a season. Mike Redmond took over for 2013, and was fired after a little over two seasons on the job.
Girardi was six games under .500 during his one season in charge, Gonzalez was three games under in his three and a half season, largely due to him being 20 games under in his first year in charge. Rodriguez was seven games under. Since Rodriguez’s firing, the Marlins haven’t finished above .500, and have lost 90 games four times in five seasons. The franchise actually *was* on the right track following their 2003 World Championship…and of course, it’s all gone to hell over the last five years.
Hill:
“There is a lot of talent in that clubhouse. We need the right man to lead that clubhouse. We all arrived at the same conclusion. I’m extremely pleased and happy to have him aboard. It’s fitting the day after the season officially ends that a new beginning starts today.”
While that quote seems bold, it really isn’t – the Marlins have said variations of the same thing at three recent managerial press conferences. Here’s Loria at Girardi’s introductory press conference.
“He is the right man to lead our team,” Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria said. “I’m proud that he will start what will be a long, successful managerial career here in South Florida.”
And here’s Loria at Guillen’s introductory press conference.
“Welcome to a new era in Marlins baseball,” Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria said. “As you all know we are celebrating two things today: Closing our time here at Sun Life Stadium and the introduction of my friend, Ozzie, over here.”
And here’s Larry Beinfest, Miami’s former president of baseball ops, on Redmond at *his* introductory press conference.
“This man is universally respected and liked throughout baseball,” Beinfest said. “This is a major win for us in a lot of ways. Mike is going to have so much support from people he has touched in the game that it is going to be tough for him not to succeed.”
Sound familiar? Yeah. Don Mattingly is Joe Girardi is Ozzie Guillen is Mike Redmond. I couldn’t really find any juicy quotes from the hirings of Gonzalez and Rodriguez, unfortunately.
Mattingly is also in this for the long haul, which seems optimistic.
“I told David I signed a four year deal, plan on being here at least 10. It’s important to be able to do it year in and year out. That was my biggest fear is blow it up and start over. I wanted to be part of something that would continue to grow. I plan on coming here and winning…
Only four managers have managed the Marlins for parts of four seasons – Gonzalez, Jack McKeon, Rene Lachemann, and John Boles. Only McKeon has a winning record. Gonzalez’s 555 games at the helm is the most in team history, which is good for roughly three and a half years. The bigger question about Mattingly is if he’ll even serve out his entire contract, let alone sticking around for a decade.
And here’s Samson on how Mattingly is different from the parade of managers that preceded him.
“Every situation is different. We’re four years into the new building. There is something about Donnie that sounds and hears and smells like continuity. There is less show. With Donny, it’s just baseball. The core is different [from 2012]. The roster is different. The front office makeup is different.”
Is Samson actually saying that the hiring of Guillen and the spending spree that followed was a show? That’s how it reads to me – “hey, we did this for attention, but now, we’re serious about winning!”
Also, how is the core different now? The “core” in 2013, Redmond’s first year in charge, consisted of Jose Fernandez, Henderson Alvarez, Giancarlo Stanton, Adeiny Hechavarria, and Logan Morrison. All of those players aside from Morrison are still parts of the core, along with Dee Gordon, Christian Yelich, and (well, until he’s traded this winter) Marcell Ozuna. The core hasn’t drastically changed from when Redmond took over.
If the Marlins get off to another slow start in 2016 like they did in 2015 under Redmond, who’s going to get the blame? Mike Redmond isn’t around to use as a scapegoat anymore, and neither is Dan Jennings. Giving Mattingly the ax so soon would send yet another awful message to the league and the fans. If Hill, Samson, or Mike Berger, who absorbed power this year with Jennings in the clubhouse instead of the front office, are canned, all of these statements about trying to build for the future and win another title will sound even more ridiculous, given that the Marlins have put so much faith in these men this season and will presumably be committed to them throughout the offseason.
Until the Marlins actually commit to a manager and a plan long-term, there’s no reason to believe anything they’re saying about Mattingly. They’ve been saying the same things about their managers and their teams for the last decade, and they’ve run everyone off, no matter the level of success the managers have had. The Marlins and Mattingly can say all of these lovely things about each other, but they should be taken with a grain of salt until the waters start to get choppy.
