MLB manager grades for every new hire, including 2 A’s and 2 D’s

2025 has been a busy year for the managerial market. With nine openings, nearly a third of the league was looking for a new manager. Eight of those openings have now been filled, with the Colorado Rockies now the only team still searching for a manager.

The theme of this cycle has been a lack of experience among the hires. Five of the eight hires have no MLB managerial experience and six of the eight are under 50 years old. Teams have been swinging for the fences this cycle. That is a high risk, high reward strategy. Here are my grades for all eight managerial hires.

Craig Albernaz, Orioles: A

Craig Albernaz was one of the hottest names on the managerial market this offseason. Despite not having any managerial experience, multiple teams went after Albernaz. He received rave reviews during his time as Stephen Vogt’s right hand man in Cleveland. In the end, he landed with the Baltimore Orioles.

The O’s are in need of a spark after a disappointing 75 win campaign. Baltimore had made the playoffs in the two previous seasons, but a lack of pitching and stagnation among their young hitting core led them to take a step back. On paper, Albernaz seems like a great candidate to get the best out of that core.

At 43 years old, Albernaz is a young fresh face who has the personality to command a locker room. However, the success of the 2026 O’s will come down to the work of GM Mike Elias. He needs to make a run at a top line starter that can compliment the O’s young hitters. If the right tools are around him, Albernaz should succeed.

Skip Schumaker, Rangers: A-

Unlike many of the managers hired in this cycle, Skip Schumaker has managerial experience. He managed the Marlins in 2023 and 2024. In his first season, he led the Marlins to the playoffs and won Manager of the Year. However, things went off the rails in year two, with the Marlins losing 100 games and Schumaker losing his job.

After taking an advisory role in Texas, he was seen around the industry as the manager in waiting. Bruce Bochy was entering his 70’s, so the Rangers needed a succession plan. Texas had a second straight disappointing season following their 2023 World Series, so Bochy stepped away.

Schumaker was the obvious candidate and became the first manager hired this cycle. This is a great and well planned hire by the Rangers. It remains to be seen if Schumaker can be successful though. The team is aging and could enter a retool. If they do that, Schumaker is a good man to lead them into this new era.

After a pair of mediocre seasons under Bob Melvin, Giants President of Baseball Operations and franchise legend Buster Posey had seen enough. Melvin was let go and Posey set out to make a splashy hire. Since their magical 2021 season, the Giants have been the definition of average, winning between 79 and 81 games each of the past four seasons.

Posey was looking to shake things up and he did just that by hiring University of Tennessee coach Tony Vitello. This outside the box hire sent shock waves around the baseball world. Vitello is the first college coach to jump into MLB management without professional coaching experience.

However, Vitello was wildly successful in Knoxville, where he rebuilt the Vols program and won a National Championship. He is also highly charismatic and has the personality to win over a locker room quickly. Given his lack of professional experience, the grade was knocked down but this is a risk worth taking for a Giants team desperate to escape mediocrity.

Blake Butera, Nationals: B

After firing manager Davey Martinez and GM Mike Rizzo, the Washington Nationals have gone in a youthful direction. The team hired 35-year old Paul Toboni to be their President of Baseball Operations and went even younger with the manager, hiring Blake Butera, who is just 33-years old. Butera is the youngest manager in over 50 years, which comes with a lot of risk.

Butera has taken a non-traditional path to management. He was a Minor League manager for four years before spending the last two years as the Senior Director of Player Development for the Rays. That player development experience is valuable for the Nationals who have a lot of work to do in that area.

This hiring does not come without risk. Butera is still very young in his baseball journey. He could be too green for this job, but he is highly thought of in the industry. Having floundered since their 2019 World Series title, the Nationals are in position to take a high risk/high reward swing because they do not have much to lose.

After Mike Shildt surprisingly stepped away, the Padres had to search for their sixth full time manager of the AJ Preller era. Shildt had led the Padres to the playoffs in each of his two seasons, so he will be a tough act to follow. In a surprising twist, former Padres reliever Craig Stammen went from interviewing potential candidates to landing the job himself.

Despite the palace intrigue, the hire does make some sense. Stammen played six seasons in San Diego and has been an advisor to AJ Preller since his retirement. He knows the organization well and has existing relationships with players on the roster.

This is a risk though. The Padres are in their competitive window right now. Having a manager learn on the job while the team is trying to compete could become problematic. Stammen does not have any coaching experience, but AJ Preller feels he is ready to manage a veteran-laden and occasionally volatile clubhouse.

The Atlanta Braves are not a team that hires new managers very often. Since 1990, the team has only had three managers. Of course, the legendary Bobby Cox managed many of those seasons, but Fredi Gonzalez and Brian Snitker both had long runs in Atlanta. Gonzalez lasted six seasons, while Snitker managed for 10 seasons.

This makes the hiring of Walt Weiss feel underwhelming. After a mediocre run as Rockies manager, Weiss had been the Braves bench coach since 2016. Following a disappointing season in 2025, many thought the Braves would shake things up. That did not turn out to be the case. This hire feels very uninspired, but the Brian Snitker hiring was not a glamorous hire and that worked out very well.

Weiss’ grade was helped out by a couple smart staff hirings. Adding pitching coach Jeremy Hefner and first base coach Antoan Richardson is impressive. Both are highly regarded around the league. Richardson helped the slow footed Juan Soto steal 38 bases last season, imagine what he could do with Ronald Acuña.

The Minnesota Twins went against the grain, hiring an older manager with previous experience in Derek Shelton. Shelton was fired by the Pirates midway through his sixth season as manager. He did not have any winning seasons in Pittsburgh, but blaming that on the manager would be foolish.

However, the Twins feel like a team going nowhere fast. With ownership problems of their own, the team is entering a rebuild. While Shelton has experience managing a young team, this is not a very exciting hire. Nothing about Shelton’s time in Pittsburgh suggests he deserved an immediate shot at another job. It would be easy to argue that he is a downgrade on Rocco Baldelli, who the Twins just fired.

For Shelton, it seems like he is being dealt a tough hand once again as a manager. He is an uninspiring hire being set up to fail. His experience with a rebuilding team is an asset, but I do not have a lot of faith in this hire.

At first, the Kurt Suzuki hire seemed exciting. He was a former Angel who was going back to manage the team. However, the devil is in the details with this hire. Due to the contract he signed, Suzuki is immediately on the hot seat.

A first time manager should have the opportunity to grow with the team. Suzuki will not have that chance, as he only signed a one-year deal. That short contract instantly puts pressure on a manager who will be learning on the job. It is not a smart move by an organization who makes a lot of silly moves.

This is just another example of the Angels being the Angels. Unlike many owners, Arte Moreno actually seems like he wants to win. However, he cannot get out of his own way. This peculiar contract is just another example of that. The pressure of a one-year deal is likely to stunt Suzuki’s growth as a manager. This smells like a one and done for the former catcher.

Source link
#MLB #manager #grades #hire #including

For all the fun of the new 48-team World Cup format so far, there is a sense that the tournament is a little too forgiving, with 32 teams surviving the initial group phase.

But there’s good news for those of you who need bit more cruelty with your sporting spectacle: That all ends after Saturday, when the new, and obviously larger and better (this is America after all) knockout phase begins Sunday with Canada facing South Africa.

Here’s everything you need to know about the business end of the World Cup, which begins to look a lot more like the playoff formats we know and love in American sports.

Who gets in?

Every team that finishes first or second in group play gets into the knockout phase. Of course, that would only be 24 teams, so in this expanded World Cup, the top eight third-place group finishers also receive a berth.

Those third-place teams are ranked by points they earn in their respective groups. For those finishing on the same number of points, the tiebreakers go in this order: Total goal difference, total goals scored, best discipline record (yellow and red cards), and then FIFA World Rankings.

The first- and second-place finishers have dedicated, pre-determined slots in the bracket. Those third-place teams that qualify are sorted into the remaining spots by that Ghanaian witch doctor who put a curse on Harry Kane.

OK, so they’re actually sorted by a complicated formula that merely feels like a creation of sorcery. But for American fans, the important thing to know is the U.S. men’s national team will face Bosnia and Herzegovina on July 1 in Santa Clara, Calif.

How does it work?

Unlike the group stage that may feel foreign to fans of American sports, this is good, old-fashioned, single-elimination knockout play. The winner moves on. The loser goes home, though the wealthier players might stop off for a confusingly unappealing vacation in July in South Florida.

Also, the bracket is completely fixed, similar to the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Basketball tournament, rather than the NFL, NBA or NHL Playoffs. There is no re-seeding after each round.

What if the match finishes tied?

In single-elimination matches in the World Cup and most other major competitions, teams play 30 minutes of extra time to decide a tie after 90. Teams switch ends after 15 minutes plus stoppage time, but it’s only a momentary pause.

Extra time is not a sudden-death format In other words, play continues after a goal, allowing a losing team to tie the match again or the winning team to add insurance.

For example, in the 1966 final, England defeated West Germany 4-2 in a final that was tied 2-2 after 90 minutes, and England’s fourth goal lives on as one of the most iconic moments in their national team history.

In the 2022 final, Argentina and France each scored in extra time before Argentina eventually won on penalties following an enthralling 3-3 draw.

The match goes to penalties if still tied after 120 minutes.

What happens in penalties?

Usually, Emi Martinez. Or Croatia.

Oh, the format. Each team takes five kicks from the spot, and the team that makes more moves on. If tied after five kicks, they go to a sixth, seventh, and so on in a manner similar to extra-inning baseball, where each team gets an additional attempt until there is a winner.

How long does this all take?

With the knockout phase doubled in size, there is an additional round and the process takes a little bit longer. The bracket and schedule is designed so that, at a minimum, every team has three off days between its last match and its next one (with the exception of the third-place match played a day before the World Cup final).

Unlike the NCAA Tournaments or the NFL Playoffs, the bracket so the games feel continuous. The first truly unscheduled day of the tournament won’t come until July 8. And there will only be five idle days in total until the final on July 19.