Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez is the only Hispanic manager in major league baseball. That surprises me. The only reason I know it is because he appeared on a segment of ESPN's "Outside the Lines" that examined the issue.
It's surprising because managers are almost exclusively ex-ballplayers, and the number of Latino players has increased every year to about 30 percent now. Also, about 25 percent of major league coaches are Hispanic.
In the OTL piece baseball commissioner Rob Manfred acknowledged that the lack of Hispanic mangers is a problem. But instead of promising to be proactive and vowing to do better, Manfred made plenty of excuses. That includes this comment on Hispanic players’ educational backgrounds:
“Obviously the quantitative part of our game has exploded. And to the extent that you are dealing with big data, analyzing that data and making decisions made on that data, higher education can be an advantage.”
Wait . . . what? This sort of felt like an Al Campanis moment, just more subtle than coming right out and saying Hispanics aren't smart enough to do the job. In addition to being insulting to Hispanics, Manfred's comment is transparently BS on multiple levels.
First, major league teams sign most players from Latin America while they are still teenagers. That means the vast majority of Hispanic players don't go to college. Now Manfred says that’s a reason they are not being hired as managers when they are done playing. That's a rigged game.
Manfred’s assertion that a college education is helpful for analyzing data is true . . . for general managers and other senior front-office personnel. Field managers do not need to analyze data at the granular level. Anything beyond the basics can be explained to the manager by all of those numbers-smart executives who now dominate front offices (for the Braves that's GM John Coppolella, among others).
Also, there are a lot of American players who never went to college. Most elite high school prospects go straight to the pros. Five current major-league managers are ex-players who didn’t go to college: Mike Scioscia (Angels), John Gibbons (Blue Jays), Don Mattingly (Marlins), Pete Mackanin (Phillies) and Clint Hurdle (Pirates). All of those guys are Caucasian.
For managers, crunching sophisticated numbers is less important than knowing how to make in-game decisions and run a clubhouse. The best way to learn those things is to actually manage pro ballplayers. But there are seven current big-league managers who never did the job at any pro level before getting their current jobs: Scott Servais (Mariners), Craig Counsell (Brewers), Brad Ausmus (Tigers), Robin Ventura (White Sox), Dave Roberts (Dodgers), Mike Matheny (Cardinals) and Walt Weiss (Rockies). That’s six Caucasian guys and one guy with a black father and Japanese mother (Roberts).
Ozzie Guillen, formerly the manager of the White Sox and the Marlins, told Outside the Lines that it’s hard for Hispanic players who paid their dues to see managers get hired with no experience.
“It’s like a knife stab you in the middle of your heart,” Guillen said.
It seems a college education isn’t an important consideration for Americans to get a shot at managing a major league team. Previous pro managing experience also seems optional for those candidates. But Hispanic candidates apparently have to check all of the right boxes to get a chance.
It doesn't make sense from the perspective of the clubs. If chances are that seven or eight players on a roster speak Spanish as their first (and sometimes only) language, then an experienced manager who is fluent in Spanish is an asset. Certainly he has an edge over a manager who relies on Spanish-speaking coaches to communicate with those players.
“I’m bilingual,” Alex Cora told OTL from his native Puerto Rico, where he manages a winter club. “The game is becoming more and more Latino, let’s be honest. I think that’s an advantage.”
Yet according to OTL just one Hispanic person was hired for the 25 manager positions open since 2012. Manfred said he’s committed to enforcing the so-called “Selig rule” in a way that requires teams with manager openings to interview at least one Hispanic candidate. Yet he wouldn’t name the one club he said he fined for violating the rule. What’s the point if there is no public shaming of violators?
Cora said he thinks Hispanics will get more opportunities when clubs “start looking at us as capable instead of Latinos.” Guillen said they deserve the chance.
“I think there should be more attention to what we can bring to the table not because baseball is not running the game right or (is) wrong,” Guillen said. “Not because we are in the minority. I think we need (an) opportunity because of what we know about the game.”
Somebody tell Manfred that's not something you learn in college.
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