![\"Then-Boston](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ap26098023270407.jpg\")
<\/p>\nNew York\u00a0\u2014\u00a0\n <\/p>\n
\n Before hiring a manager for his mid-market franchise, a general manager and five other team stakeholders sat in a room with a whiteboard to brainstorm what they believed to be the attributes of a championship skipper. The last manager had been fired at the end of a disappointing season and they needed a fresh voice.\n <\/p>\n
\n They ended up with more than 40 characteristics written on the board, narrowed the list to the five they felt were the most important for exactly where they were in the competitive cycle, and interviewed only candidates they believed to be strong in at least four of the five. The man they hired won Manager of the Year, led the team to the playoffs multiple times \u2013 and was fired just months after the team had picked up his option.\n <\/p>\n
\n He was replaced the following season with someone who had also been fired from his last job for the disappointing performance of a different club.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cLike general managers,\u201d the former GM, who now works in a different front office, told CNN Sports recently, \u201cmanagers are hired to be fired.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n And yet he \u2013 along with seven other executives and coaches CNN spoke to for this story, all of whom were all granted anonymity to speak candidly \u2013 does not believe that is a manager\u2019s highest and best use. The people who hire and ultimately fire managers, and the coaches who spend six-plus months in the daily grind of the dugout with them, believe managers matter for a multitude of reasons.\n <\/p>\n
\n In fact, that same former GM mused that the modern manager is actually spread too thin.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThey matter a tremendous amount,\u201d said another former GM who now works for a different team. \u201cBut I don\u2019t know if they matter a tremendous amount in the way that people think that they matter.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The 2026 baseball season has already given two primary examples of managers losing their jobs for reasons that may or may not have actually been their fault \u2013 or reasonable.\n <\/p>\n
\n The Red Sox were in last place when they fired manager Alex Cora and nearly all of his staff in a stunning Saturday night bloodletting that came just hours after a blowout victory. After several disappointing seasons, Boston was off to a sloppy, sluggish start. And yet, it was only 27 games into the season.\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n The aggregate response \u2013 after the initial wave of sheer shock \u2013 seemed to be that Cora didn\u2019t deserve to be fired because he is an obviously brilliant World Series-winning manager and also because modern managers don\u2019t have enough authority to meaningfully impact the record. And yet, how could both of those things be true?\n <\/p>\n
\n When the Phillies fired Rob Thomson just a few days later, the reaction seemed to be that he similarly didn\u2019t deserve such a fate \u2013 in this case because the team had made the playoffs in every season since he\u2019d taken over the helm amid another mid-season firing in 2022 \u2013 but also that, indeed, part of a manager\u2019s job is to lose their job.\n <\/p>\n
\n When a team with high expectations underperforms at a point in the season when there is little opportunity to shake up the roster, the manager gets fired. But is it a ritual sacrifice necessary to appease the angry fanbase or because a new voice can meaningfully tap into latent talent?\n <\/p>\n
\n In both situations, there are nuances that contextualize the apparent paradox of the response (a power struggle in Boston, a concern of complacency in Philadelphia). But the question at the heart of the paradox extends beyond any one hiring or firing: How much does the modern MLB manager matter?\n <\/p>\n
\n Decades of increased emphasis on statistics and ballooning front offices has brought baseball to a point where savvy commentators know better than to ascribe total strategic responsibility to the manager. It\u2019s the nerds in khakis and quarter-zips, not the guy dressed unnecessarily in full uniform, calling the shots on lineups and bullpen matchups. Or at least, providing the data that will shape those decisions. That\u2019s the stereotype, anyway.\n <\/p>\n
\n So pervasive is the assumption that everything is analytics now that you could start to wonder whether managers matter at all. Attempts to quantify the impact by focusing on in-season managerial changes seem to indicate that the effect is minimal<\/a> to negligible<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n The methodology is sound, but the conclusion seems at odds with logic. Anyone who has had a job can attest to the fact that their boss \u2013 even if they\u2019re middle management working within a larger structure \u2013 has an impact on the productivity or the mood (which, let\u2019s be honest, can affect productivity).\n <\/p>\n \n Several of the people who spoke to CNN Sports conceded that managers have less organizational sway these days, in part simply because every organization is so much bigger than it used to be.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWhen I started, I feel as if the manager was kind of the epicenter of the brand of the team,\u201d said the first former GM.\n <\/p>\n \n Teams had their own distinct strategies or styles of play, \u201cand that typically emanated from the manager, who was the front-facing person, and who, by and large, had jurisdiction over who was going to be able to play for him and who was not, based upon their ability to adapt to that style of play.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Now, players have their own specific approaches optimized from numerous angles \u2013 an expanded roster of on-staff coaches, analytics input from the team\u2019s front office or the player\u2019s own agency, and often personal coaches from independent training facilities. The goal is to wring as much production out of each athlete rather than implement a cohesive strategy that must be conformed to.\n <\/p>\n \n And the manager\u2019s role, then, is less about setting that strategy, and more about making sure all these elite individuals can coexist and stay focused on the task at hand amid an ever-increasing onslaught of information.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cCulture is an elusive word in sport, but I believe it starts, and stops, with the tone a manager sets. They shape the daily habits and standards of the team,\u201d said one current GM. \u201cEvery club has tacticians who understand the odds and edges, but it\u2019s the (emotional intelligence) and the ability to elevate those around them that drives consistent winning.\u201d\n <\/p>\n Humility and aura<\/p>\n \n But a great manager doesn\u2019t undermine the front office or even just counterbalance their focus on analytics. He embraces it as well, and helps his players to do the same.\n <\/p>\n \n Another former GM of multiple teams now working in a different front office said that what separates capable managers from elite managers is \u201cprobability-based thinking and the ability to actually deliver it to a player in a way that lands.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThere are managers who can speak analytics fluently in a front office meeting and then walk into the clubhouse with no real ability to translate it \u2013 or who actually don\u2019t believe in it. Players know the difference between a manager who genuinely understands why the data is pointing somewhere and one who\u2019s simply repeating what he was told to say,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cElite managers can sit with a hitter or pitcher, explain what the information is showing, connect it to something real in that player\u2019s experience, and make him feel like the idea came from a genuine conversation. That skill is rare and it requires intellectual honesty and humility.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n That trait \u2013 humility \u2013 came up across multiple conversations. One of the former GMs told of hiring a then-first time manager who admitted he would need to be taught the finer points of actual in-game managing. They hired him anyway, because of his humility and because he possessed the other traits they believed defined a winning manager.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cYou want a certain amount of charisma, a certain amount of presence, the ability to communicate the organization\u2019s message to the players, to other coaches, to the media, to the fans,\u201d the former GM said. \u201cBecause what we are doing in the clubhouse and in the front office is not always going to be the most popular thing.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n And because even the best managers have to shepherd their clubhouses through an incredible amount of losing. Baseball teams play nearly every day for half a year. Championship-caliber clubs lose 60 games a season, if not more. Star players will slump, hard-fought contests will go the other way, criticism will come for everyone involved.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cDecision fatigue is real. Emotional stamina is real,\u201d said a current major league coach. \u201cClarity and communication is often noted but not fully understood by those who do not have to execute on it \u2013 maintaining engagement, preventing small fractures from becoming big ones, protecting your people from bad situations, affecting and making necessary changes are all requisites of the job, but difficult to track and evaluate objectively above a replacement level.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Or, as a different major league coach put it: \u201cWhen you work 162 games, personalities matter.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Most of the people who spoke with CNN Sports mentioned that different teams \u2013 depending on the market or the immediate goals or the existing personnel in place \u2013 might need different strengths in a manager. And perhaps, if some of those circumstances change, even a good manager may no longer be the best fit. In that case, perhaps a change is necessary.\n <\/p>\n \n Which is not to say that they\u2019re never jettisoned as a scapegoat. In some ways, even that unceremonious dismissal is an acknowledgement that managers do matter. Otherwise, teams wouldn\u2019t fire them when they\u2019re still making millions of dollars. And GMs wouldn\u2019t want to admit they failed by picking someone in the first place if it\u2019s a manager they hired. And because, as good as the analytical models have gotten, they can\u2019t account for everything anyway.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIf a team\u2019s projected talent level is 76 wins and it consistently performs like an 81-win team, something in the environment is adding value,\u201d one of the major league coaches said. \u201cConversely, if a projected 86-win roster repeatedly underperforms like an 82-win team, something is leaking value.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The misconception that managers don\u2019t matter seems to come from a mistrust of anything mercurial. But just because there isn\u2019t a formula for their value doesn\u2019t mean people close to the game don\u2019t see it and assess it \u2013 confidently, if incorrectly at times.\n <\/p>\n \n Not everything that matters can be quantified. That\u2019s why they still play the games, and why teams still hire \u2013 and fire \u2013 managers.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York\u00a0\u2014\u00a0 Before hiring a manager for his mid-market franchise, a general manager and five other team stakeholders…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-672830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Cleveland](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/gettyimages-2273860277.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Milwaukee's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/gettyimages-2276119733.jpg\")
<\/p>\n