The searches for the next manager for the Washington Nationals, Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds are well underway, but who is going to want to manage there if the Detroit Tigers' and Los Angeles Dodgers jobs are available?
On Monday, Oct. 21, Jim Leyland announced his resignation from the Tigers after Detroit lost to the Boston Red Sox in the American League Championship Series. Hours later, Don Mattingly announced his vesting option to return to the Dodgers kicked in because of the team's first-round playoff victory, but he's not sure he wants to return to Los Angeles.
Before Jim Leyland arrived in Motown, the Tigers were, well, bad. Jeff Weaver and Jeremy Bonderman were the aces. That's never a good sign. But Leyland came in and worked his magic from day one with the Tigers and it never really stopped for the eight years he spent with the team.
In his first season at the helm in 2006, the Tigers went to the World Series but were defeated in five games by the St. Louis Cardinals. He only had one losing record with the Tigers in his eight years, and he led the team to at least the ALCS each of the last three seasons. In 2012, the Tigers were swept by the San Francisco Giants.
In his press conference Monday morning, Leyland revealed he was running out of gas and it was time to turn the job over to someone else, but that he would take another position with the team.
Mattingly on the other hand has been the manager of the Dodgers for three years now, but he's not had as good a go of things as Leyland in Detroit.
Even with Clayton Kershaw starting every fifth day, the Dodgers only made the playoffs once in his three years. This season, Mattingly managed in the final year of his contract, making his season much more strenuous than most managers in baseball.
At one point in June when the Dodgers were 9.5 games out of first place in the National League West, Mattingly was almost fired. Then, the Dodgers caught fire and went a league best 42-8 over a 50-game stretch.
Mattingly revealed he hasn't decided whether he would return to the club Monday afternoon, showing he was not happy with the way his status as manager was handled throughout the season.
"When you're put in this situation, the organization basically says, 'We don't know if you can manage or not,'" Mattingly told a group of reporters Monday. "So, that's the position I've been in all season long, so that's not a great position for me as a manager. That's the way it is, that's the way the organization wanted it last year, that's fine."
Mattingly later told reporters the decision would come soon, as he wants to manage next season. He's just not sure if it's with the Dodgers or somewhere else.
So lets be honest with each other right now. The Detroit Tigers job is open. The chance to go manager Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder and company is, well, too good to pass up. If Mattingly leaves the Dodgers, one lucky man could find himself managing Kershaw, Zach Greinke, Matt Kemp, Adrian Gonzalez and Yasiel Puig among others. That's a World Series championship waiting to happen.
The way I see it right now, the Dodger job is kind of like Erik Spoelstra with the Miami Heat of the NBA. LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh are running that show. He's just along for the ride. Kershaw, Greinke, Kemp, Gonzalez and Puig will carry that team to a championship sooner rather than later. The manager will be along for the ride.
Sorry Nationals, Reds and Cubs, you just got pushed to the curb in a matter of a few hours on an October Monday. The Cubs are used to being an afterthought in October, so this is nothing new. But honestly, who is going to want to manage Theo Epstein's rag-tag crew and Starlin Castro?
The Reds and Nationals are different, but not really that much. The Nationals were a Spring Training World Series pick. We see how that worked out for them. The Reds actually did make the playoffs but lost in the Wild Card game to the resurgent PIttsburgh Pirates.
Either way, none of the trio will have the draw the Dodgers and Tigers do.
Charlie Manuel anybody?