Dusty Baker hasn’t been an MLB manager since 2013, but he is reportedly mulling a potential return to the dugout next season.
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Report: Baker in Discussions for Marlins Manager Job
Tuesday, Sept. 22
Joe Frisaro of MLB.com reported the Miami Marlins may be tabbing Baker to be the full-time successor to Mike Redmond, whom they fired in May. Frisaro added Baker is “a very strong candidate.”
Dan Jennings is currently in the interim skipper spot after Redmond’s third season with the club was cut short amid a 16-22 start.
Baker, 66, joined Turner Sports as a studio analyst for TBS’ MLB playoff coverage on Sept. 15.
In a recent interview with Awful Announcing’s Andrew Bucholtz, Baker spoke about the state of the game and how someone with his throwback type of philosophy still has relevance:
[Baseball]’s changed a lot, with the overall philosophy of how the game should be run, with the sabermetrics, the changing of the guard so to speak, and those that are in charge. There’s less baseball people in charge and more businessmen in charge. But there’s still a spot for guys that played the game. If you didn’t play the game, you may know the game, but you don’t see things in advance like we see things. The whole thing about being prepared is you can be prepared, but you also have to have forethought and anticipation and feelings on what you feel may happen.
It almost sounds as though Baker is justifying himself as a managerial candidate to a degree.
Baker is an old-school personality known for getting along with players, but he hasn’t made it out of the first round of the playoffs since 2003. That was also the last year the Marlins made the postseason, when they proceeded to win the World Series and beat Baker’s Chicago Cubs in the National League Championship Series.
MLB.com’s Dylan Heuer doesn’t believe Baker is a good fit for the Marlins:
Miami called upon 2003’s championship skipper, Jack McKeon, to lead the team for a brief 90-game stint on an interim basis in 2011. In total there have been six different managers since 2010, excluding the one-game interim stint Brandon Hyde had before McKeon’s second brief tenure.
So there has been a fair amount of instability in leadership in the Marlins clubhouse. Based on the influence analytics and sabermetrics have had on pro baseball, a known commodity in Baker with little recent success may not be the best candidate to pitch to Marlins fans.
The Marlins have reportedly interviewed Manny Acta for their manager position as well, per ESPNdeportes.com’s Enrique Rojas. Acta hasn’t managed since 2012, so it will be interesting to see if Miami continues to pursue options who’ve been away from the game for multiple years or mixes in other viable candidates who are currently active.
Note: Managerial records courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.
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