Handicapping the Next Yankee Manager
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For the moment, let’s assume that Joe Torre has managed his last game for the Yankees. He hasn’t, necessarily; George Steinbrenner may have pronounced Sunday that Torre would not be welcomed back if the Yankees didn’t win their playoff series against the Cleveland Indians, but there are good reasons to think that Steinbrenner has only slightly more say in the matter than I do. Still, it seems far more likely that Torre will be enjoying well-deserved time with his family and giving motivational speeches for fanciful sums of money next summer than it does that he’ll be sitting on the bench at Yankee Stadium for a 13th season, and this means it’s time to start gambling that hard-earned cash that otherwise would have been lost at the dog track on the name of his replacement. Hence, a tip sheet.
JOE GIRARDI, 3–1
Girardi is, at best, a modestly qualified candidate. Any credit he gets for his work with the Florida Marlins last year he loses for getting fired; one has to work exceptionally hard to be sacked after winning the Manager of the Year award as a rookie, and he found a way to do it. As the story goes, Girardi, perhaps unaware that the Marlins have won more championships this decade than the Yankees, apparently carried himself as if he was convinced he was bringing reason and big city ways to a baseball backwater. Among his notable offenses, he ignored team policy and brought 22-year-old stud pitcher Josh Johnson back into a game after a long rain delay, after which Johnson blew out his elbow. Care regarding young pitchers is a prerequisite for the Yankees job, so he may not be a good fit. He’s nonetheless the favorite, as he’s young, has managerial experience, and is steeped in the Yankee Way.
DON MATTINGLY, 5–1
If Girardi is only modestly qualified for the job, Mattingly is flatly unqualified. He has three years experience as a hitting coach and one as a bench coach. This adds up to zero games managed. Further, as the managerial careers of Don Zimmer, Willie Randolph, and Lee Mazzilli show, being a good capo for Torre and being a good manager do not require similar skills. Still, Mattingly is a serious candidate, not least because of the somewhat inexplicable reverence in which he’s held by the fans and his nearly 30-year run of not saying or doing anything stupid or embarrassing — a Yankees record. One thinks that if the team’s former inspirational leader wants to return to the big stage as skipper, he should do what fellow 1980s icon Ryne Sandberg has done and get some work in down in the bush leagues; his advanced degree in the Yankee Way, though, may be enough.
BOBBY VALENTINE 25–1
Of all the managers whose names have come up as potential Torre replacements, Valentine is the most impressive by orders of magnitude. He’s the rare manager whose skills are actually worth real wins in the standings, as he’s consistently won with marginal talent, and he’s proved he can handle the pressures of New York. While his outsized personality is usually brought up as the most serious count against him, though, there’s one that’s far more serious — he actually enjoys managing in Japan. Unfathomable as the notion may seem, not all people count success in New York, or success in America, as the biggest and brightest of all possible successes. I’m not only unsure the Yankees would offer him the job; I’m unsure he’d take it. This is a shame for Yankees fans, but a good thing for fans of the Chiba Lotte Marines — who are, I’ll note, still alive in Japan’s postseason.
DUSTY BAKER 100–1
Tanned, rested, and ready to go, current ESPN analyst and three-time Manager of the Year Dusty Baker would be a hilariously bad choice for the Yankees. Baker has his strengths: He’s so much more interesting and personable a man than most of his peers, veterans truly love to play for him, and he’s the only jobless skipper with the larger-than-life personality that will be needed to follow Torre. All of this, and baseball’s policies on interviewing minority candidates, will, I think, make him a candidate if Torre is indeed let go. If he were actually to be hired, though, he would likely do horrific things to the arms of the Yankees’ young pitchers, and at some point show off all the unpleasant tics, among them a persecution complex, that alienated him from the city of Chicago during his tenure with the Cubs. The latter would at least be entertaining; the former would be near criminal.
TONY LA RUSSA 500–1
Tony La Russa is many things — a future Hall of Famer, an animal lover, and, shamefully, a drunk driver. He’s also impossibly old school — demanding and receiving far more authority over which players are on his roster and how they’re used than most managers have enjoyed for decades. Having absolutely nothing to prove, it’s nearly impossible to imagine La Russa coming to New York, where he’d be put under unbearable pressure while sacrificing the kind of control over his team with which he’s operated for decades. His name being mentioned in any connection with the Yankees, even a speculative one, is a good indication of why the team ought to swallow hard and give Torre his money — if the old man goes, the hunt for his replacement is going to be a circus, and not the fun kind.
tmarchman@nysun.com