Making sense of the new class of MLB managers

Alden GonzalezNov 28, 2025, 2:21 p.m.
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A 33-year-old, a college coach, a recently retired reliever… it’s been quite a different offseason for unconventional managers. What does this mean?

The first surprise came on October 18, with the news that the San Francisco Giants were close to signing the famous coach of the Tennessee Volunteers, Tony Vitelloas his new manager. Another surprise came on Halloween, the day Blake Butera became the pick of the Washington Nationals despite being only 33 years old. But the biggest surprise of all, according to several coaches and executives consulted by AM850came six days later, when the former relief pitcher Craig Stammen – barely two years removed from retirement and barely previously mentioned as a possible manager – landed baseball’s most important on-field job with the San Diego Padres.

With Stammen, Vitello and Kurt Suzuki, another recent retiree who signed a one-year deal to manage the Los Angeles Angels last month, the Major League Baseball suddenly they had three managers with no professional coaching experience. Five managers in total, including Craig Albernazthe prestigious former bench coach hired by the Baltimore Orioles, will be rookies next year. AND Warren Schaefferwho was stripped of the interim tag by the Colorado Rockies, is a 40-year-old guy who managed his first 122 major league games last season.

Two decades ago, Major League Baseball front offices experienced a revolution around advanced analytics, prompting the arrival of general managers from Ivy League universities with experience in quantitative analysis. This was followed by data-driven coaches. Now, following one of the most exciting recruiting cycles in recent memory, the industry could be experiencing a change at the manager position, with four of this off-season’s nine vacancies going to unconventional candidates.

The reasons, merits and overall importance vary greatly depending on who you talk to, but no one can deny the uniqueness of what has happened in these last five weeks. Let’s consider…

Vitello, 47, became the first person to go directly from college coach to major league manager.
The last manager younger than Butera was Frank Quilicie, from the 1972 Minnesota Twins, more than 50 years ago.
Of the 850 people who have managed at least one game in the major leagues, only 124 (less than 15%) were former pitchers. Stammen will soon become the 11th person to do so after at least 500 pitching appearances. Nine of the other 10 released their last release before the 1950s, according to AM850 Research.

“I find it interesting how it’s been a recurring theme throughout the offseason,” said the Nationals’ new president of baseball operations, Paul Toboni. “I think about other sports and some of these quote-unconventional hirings; I don’t know if they’ve become normalized, but they’re probably a little more common than in baseball, depending on how you define conventional or unconventional.”

With mixed results, the NBA has long experimented with college coaches (John Calipari, Rick Pitino, Billy Donovan, Brad Stevens), has recently seen the arrival of others from Europe (David Blatt, Mike D’Antoni, Tuomas Iisalo) and has had several former players leading teams with no prior coaching experience (Steve Nash, Jason Kidd, Steve Kerr, JJ Redick). In the NFL, Sean McVay He got a coaching job at age 30, John Harbaugh and Dan Campbell They became coaches without previous experience as offensive or defensive coordinators, and several succeeded after arriving from college, including Jimmy Johnson and Pete Carroll.

Some believe baseball’s adoption is a natural progression of advanced analytics’ critical role in lineup construction and bullpen deployment. Some coaches and executives AM850 spoke to called it a positive, noting that rookie managers have more support than ever, while others criticized modern executives for not sufficiently valuing the nuances of in-game decision-making. However, this development has allowed teams to focus more on other characteristics, such as leadership, building a culture, and how their philosophies align with those of management.

“Nowadays, if you can find traits that define a successful manager, that’s enough to want to hire him,” said one agent who represents some current managers and coaches.

Vitello, who built a powerhouse baseball program at Tennessee, has been described as intense, but also charismatic and magnetic. Suzuki, who built a 16-year major league career largely on his ability to work with pitchers, has been praised for his intelligence and sensitivity. Butera, twice Minor League Manager of the Yearhas been praised for his ability to connect with people in all areas of an organization. Stammen, a beloved player in San Diego, always connected with his teammates because, as the general manager of the Parents, AJ Preller“It’s super genuine.”

While some see its emergence as a breakthrough for a sport historically slow to adapt, others see it as further evidence that modern managements are going to extremes and, in some cases, seeking to maximize their influence.

“Some clubs may perceive that hiring a more experienced and better-paid manager could diminish their influence and control,” stated one retired former All-Star, while other sources lamented the lack of attention that recent managers such as David Ross, Brandon Hyde and Scott Servais as candidates during the preseason, despite having contributed significantly to the development of their previous franchises.

Joe Maddon, three times Manager of the Year and whose last time he managed a team was in 2022, recently expressed his frustration. Two weeks ago, in an interview with San Francisco radio station KNBR, Maddon called Vitello’s hiring “insulting” because, he said, “it seems like you no longer need professional experience to do this job.”

A former manager and current coach interpreted those comments as a sign that, no matter how hard the sport tries to evolve, resistance will always prevail.

“No matter how much baseball has grown, and it’s certainly moving forward, you still have that old-fashioned mentality,” the coach said, “whereas if it were NFL football or NBA basketball, college coaches make that leap all the time. But in baseball, it’s perceived very strangely. Our system is, in some ways, completely backwards.”

The identity of those making these hires could have something to do with it. Toboni is young, and at just 35 years old he was entrusted with leading the Nationals’ baseball operations department. Angels general manager Perry Minasian also took an unconventional path, starting as a bat boy and clubhouse manager. So did Buster Posey, the former star catcher who was part of the Giants’ ownership group before being named president of baseball operations. And then there’s Preller, who has made a habit of making unconventional moves in San Diego.

He warned that this process could be cyclical.

“I think managerial experience is important,” Elias said, “but it’s not everything in making that hire. We were willing to go with the talent we were looking for, even though he hadn’t been a major league manager.”

Several teams opted for the more conventional route this offseason. The Twins hired Derek Shelton, who just managed the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Atlanta Braves (bench coach Walt Weiss), Texas Rangers (senior advisor Skip Schumaker) and Rockies (Schaeffer) promoted from within, selecting managers with previous experience in the position. The Orioles opted for Albernaz, who, despite being new to the position, managed in the minor leagues and spent the last six seasons on a major league coaching staff.

He Orioles president of baseball operations Mike Eliasbegan the process looking for a candidate with experience in the Major Leagues, but Albernaz made him change his mind.