What makes a manager like the Royals’ Mike Matheny worthy of a second chance?
Of the eight managerial openings in Major League Baseball this offseason, four of the hires had managed big-league clubs before their previous clubs decided to make a change.
That includes the Kansas City Royals’ choice of Mike Matheny to replace Ned Yost as manager. Matheny, who’d managed the St. Louis Cardinals from 2012 through the first 93 games of 2018, joined Joe Maddon (LA Angels), Joe Girardi (Philadelphia Phillies) and Gabe Kapler (San Francisco Giants) as new skippers with at least one prior managerial post.
The Royals last manager Yost, himself a retread, went from fired in Milwaukee to a franchise record-setter and World Series champion.
What’s the magic formula for a general manager when filtering through the ranks of the previously discarded managers to find a gem? How do you know which manager will draw on his failure or perceived failure in the job and use it as an asset?
There isn’t a formula. There is no way to definitively know. There’s just homework, hope and trust.
“If you’re finding a quality candidate, those always grow and adjust and learn and they’re better for those experiences,” New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said during last month’s MLB general managers meetings. “So whatever Mike Matheny’s experiences were in St. Louis will benefit him in a big as parachutes now into Kansas City.”
Betting on the person
Cashman’s most recent managerial hire, Aaron Boone, had never managed at any level when he took over the Yankees. However, Cashman had multiple candidates with MLB managerial track records when he hired Boone predecessor Girardi.
Former Royals manager Tony Peña and Girardi were two of the top candidates for the Yankees opening that Girardi eventually got going into the 2008 season.
Girardi had been fired by the then Florida Marlins after one season (2006), which included an NL Manager of the Year Award. He reportedly clashed with management and ownership in his lone season in Miami, but also led MLB’s youngest and lowest-paid team to a 78-84 record.
Girardi took a year off before throwing his hat in the ring for the Yankees.
Peña, a former AL Manager of the Year winner with the Royals in 2003, resigned as Royals manager after his club started of with the worst record (8-25) in the majors in 2005. He served as a coach with the Yankees after his tenure with the Royals.
Cashman talked to the people Peña worked with in KC. He talked to Girardi’s former general manager in Florida. He talked to players and coaches who’d spent time with each of them as well as media members who covered those teams in order to get multiple perspectives of the good and bad.
How things unfolded in Florida and how they could have gone differently were a big part of the interview process for Cashman with Girardi.
Still there’s no certainty.
”In the end you’re betting on the person,” Cashman said. “You’re hiring managers to be an extension of your baseball operation, someone who you feel represents the same type of content that you represent.
“In the end if just comes down to betting on the person and his ability to connect and communicate and relate and grow that current roster you’re providing him. That’s what it comes down to after all that information grab and everything else, your ability to believe in that individual and then bet on him by offering him the contract and the job.”
Girardi led the Yankees to a World Series title in 2009.
Adjustable people
Philadelphia Phillies general manager Matt Klentak went from hiring a novice manager in first-timer Kapler prior to 2018 to opting for an experienced manager with a World Series title on his resume in Girardi this offseason.
Ideally, Klentak and his staff would perform a temporary mind meld with each candidate during the interview process. The goal is to try to understand the way each individual thinks, and Klentak also wants a sense of the GM-manager interaction.
What’s even harder to predict is exactly how past experience might change the approach or thought process of a potential manager.
However, Klentak believes that a period of reflection and assessment as well as an open-mindedness and willingness to learn and ask questions are desired traits.
”No matter what role we serve in in this industry, we’re all evolving at various times,” Klentak said. “Mangers are no different. As the sport evolves, as information changes, you’re looking for people that are willing to adjust with that. Most good baseball people are adjustable. I think that’s a sign of a good leader, someone who is willing to take feedback and make adjustments.”
Klentak also pointed to another important area that hopefully helps balances out any shortcomings of a manager. His coaching staff. The collective unit and the input they provide the manager should, in theory, allow him to be a better decision-maker, strategist and leader.
“Every major-league manager has strengths and weaknesses, and some might be more obvious than others,” Klentak said. “I think when you identify a weakness in yourself, in whatever role you have, it’s important you surround yourself with people that complement you and fill in the gaps where you may have a weakness. If you can be great in every area, well, that’s ideal. But most of us are not.”
Owning the past
While the term “retread” often carries a negative connotation when it comes to hiring coaches or managers, individuals on their second or third time around certainly bring a wealth of experience.
Of course, the other side of that coin is that someone found reason to replace them.
Matheny, still months away from filling out his first lineup card in earnest, has so far deftly navigated the line between touting success and accepting blame for failure during his time with the Cardinals.
Matheny has conceded that he’ll have to win over skeptics in Kansas City one at a time.
Most of all, he’s pointed to his time with the Cardinals, and his experiences since, having changed him for the better. As if his firing in St. Louis served as a battle scar, a reminder of the pain as well as a sign that he’s already been through the muck and came out the other side.
“They say you can never trust a leader without a limp,” Matheny said.
Matheny, who studied analytics and spent time with a media specialist during his year away from managing, has earned the trust of the Royals with the way he has acknowledged and tried to address his shortcomings.
That trust extends past general manager Dayton Moore and all the way to the top.
“We all learn more from our failures and our adversity than our success,” Royals new chairman and CEO John Sherman said last week following his introductory press conference. “That’s another thing about Mike. I got the sense that he was introspective, looked in the mirror pretty hard and had kind of taken it.
“If somebody fails somewhere and they’re blaming it on everybody else, that’s going to be a red flag. But when people own the challenges they’ve dealt with, that’s pretty meaningful to me. That’s what Mike did.”
This story was originally published December 6, 2019 at 5:00 AM with the headline "What makes a manager like the Royals’ Mike Matheny worthy of a second chance?."
