Weeks of speculation came to a surprising halt on Thursday, as Buck Showalter was hired by the Baltimore Orioles and will begin his reign in Baltimore on Monday, when he’s officially announced as manager. Showalter will be in the dugout on Tuesday, as Juan Samuel may or may not return to being the third base coach.
Showalter’s contract includes three years after the final two months of this season.
It was widely speculated that Orioles’ general manager Andy MacPhail would hold off on naming Showalter as manager until after the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline because the team’s focus would be solely on the trade deadline. That obviously didn’t turn out to be the case, as not only did MacPhail hire Showalter on Thursday, but he also traded third baseman Miguel Tejada to the San Diego Padres for 24-year-old right-handed pitcher Wynn Pelzer (more on that trade in a future post.)
I’d be surprised if Samuel remains with the team past Tuesday. The last thing the Orioles need is Samuel, the former manager and a man the players really respect, looking over Showalter’s shoulder and the players possibly respecting Samuel more than Showalter. Two figures of power can’t be good. I expect owner Peter Angelos to send Samuel on an extended paid vacation and Samuel to get a good job around the league by next year.
Anyway, on a superficial level, Showalter automatically gives the Orioles — even though they’re 31-70 coming into action on Thursday — a shot in the arm and a sense of respectability. Of course, a sense of respectability won’t translate to the win/loss record over the last two months of the season, but the Orioles now have a highly respected baseball man who is running the big league club. Such stability is something the Orioles haven’t had all year — once the Orioles started 2-16, the Dave Trembley Watch was on, and ever since Samuel was instituted as the interim manager, speculation had been abound about a possible replacement.
As far as managers are concerned, I’ve written before that I don’t think managers matter much during a game. The decisions that an educated baseball fan would make during a major league game wouldn’t differ much from what an everyday manager does. Concerning the most controversial of managerial decisions (pitching changes), fans are going to be upset at certain pitching changes no matter who the manager is. It’s ultimately about the players on the field. Managers can’t hold Adam Jones’ hand at the plate and make him not swing at the low and away junk pitch. Managers can’t walk around the basepaths with players to avoid the usual Orioles’ baserunning blunders. It comes down to the players. And right now, the Orioles don’t have enough good ones.
But there was a glaring failure among Trembley’s coaching staff, especially this year — a lack of player development at the big league level. Sure, a lot of productive veterans were not and are not surrounding the young players to take pressure off of them, but alas, the biggest part of the job that Trembley and his coaches were assigned to perform was to develop very talented players at the big league level — players like Matt Wieters, Brian Matusz, Nolan Reimold, Chris Tillman and Jones. It happened last year, but these young players have regressed this year. Why have such talented players regressed? Why do these players have such great success in the minor leagues, only to not progress, and in some cases, regress, in the major leagues?
Something’s wrong, and it’s not particularly off-base to think that Trembley’s coaching staff could be a large part of the reason why. The Orioles’ improvement in the win-loss column over the next couple of years hinges significantly on the development of the young players, and Showalter and the staff he assembles next offseason will be ultimately be judged on wins and losses, and henceforth, how well the young players develop. Given Showalter’s track record of handling young players, one has to assume he’ll assemble a quality coaching staff to surround the young talent.
Showalter is also known as a bit of a “control freak.” Tim Kurkjian of ESPN, who worked with Showalter on Baseball Tonight, was on television this afternoon talking about the Orioles’ hiring of Showalter, and Kurkjian called Showalter the most prepared man he’s ever met in his 30 years of covering baseball. Control and preparation is exactly what the Orioles need. The young players have had a lack of productive veterans surrounding them in the lineup and in the clubhouse, so they’ve been asked to carry the load on their own. Showalter’s high degree of control and preparation over everything baseball-related can’t hurt the young players, and will probably help them.
Showalter is also known as a manager better for laying the foundation for a team rather than getting a team over the hump and to a championship level. That fits right in with the Orioles, since a foundation is yet to be created for the team. Probably the most important thing for Showalter this season is creating that foundation — establishing a way of operating on a daily basis (immense control and preparation) and demanding the same thing from the players.
Showalter’s track record in regards to handling young players and his high degree of control and preparation are why I love this managerial hire.
Another aspect of Showalter that could be quite useful are his possible “recruiting” skills. Look, the Orioles are going to finish with the league’s worst record. Free agents are not going to be clamoring to come to Baltimore, and it’s been that way for awhile. But a manager who is respected around the game may able to attract a quality free agent (so I’m stretching it a little bit – work with me, here.)
The bottom line is that the Orioles’ managerial job is the biggest challenge in the big leagues – perhaps in all of American sports. Best of luck to Showalter — he’ll need it.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I STILL WANT WEDGE
The league might respect him, but I don’t. I’m not as sold about his track record and Wedge revitalized the Indians and I see their team from the early 2000′s as being very similar to the orioles today.
In two years, the Indians saw DRASTIC changes in performance on the mound and at the plate…
All the credit to Buck if he turns our franchise around but more than likely we will all be watching Wedge manage some other team deep into October…
Luke, you were right. This makes it SO MUCH BETTER.
Great post.