Just under two weeks remain in the 2024 MLB season, which means that all 30 organizations are beginning to look to 2025. The 12 teams on their way to the playoffs and the 18 teams headed home for the winter will scrutinize everything in the months to come—including the person charged with filling out the lineup card every day.
While their benefits may not show up in the box score, it's hard to deny the steady leadership a good manager can provide. The best ones embody the tactician-psychologist-media relations guru role of the modern manager to a T. The worst, stuck in their ways, can cost their teams games.
With these criteria in mind, here are—in alphabetical order—five managers who could be on the hot seat when the managerial carousel starts spinning.
David Bell, Reds
In 2023, the Cincinnati Reds' 82–80 record belied a significant air of excitement surrounding the team. After a meandering decade following future Hall of Fame first baseman Joey Votto's statistical prime, the Reds' future looked bright enough that Bell received an extension last July, and the team made several signings in the offseason to indicate another step forward was expected this year.
What has happened to Cincinnati since? Only a 74–78 record in spite of terrific seasons from shortstop Elly De La Cruz and pitcher Hunter Greene. While injuries have hit the Reds hard, it seems reasonable for Cincinnati fans to expect better of a club still on the rise.
Bud Black, Rockies
The futility of the Colorado Rockies is not Black's fault. The extent to which owner Dick Monfort has mismanaged one of MLB's most consistent gate success stories has been well-documented.
However, the Rockies have been so bad for so long that it may be time for a new voice in the clubhouse—especially given Colorado's struggles in Black's specialty, pitching. The Rockies, believe it or not, hadn't had two straight seasons with a team WHIP over 1.50 since 2003 to '05... until 2023 to '24. They’ve already clinched a sixth straight losing campaign after making the playoffs in Black’s first two seasons.
Aaron Boone, Yankees
As different as their teams are, Black and Boone share a common trait: both appear to have accrued a ton of equity from their successes during the 2010s. As Black took Colorado to the postseason in '17 and ’18, Boone reaped the rewards of two 100-win seasons in his first two years (‘18, ‘19).
The New York Yankees are on pace to win 94 games this year after their 20e23 slog, but it's clear Boone needs to at least flirt with the team's first pennant in 15 years this October. With the New York Mets threatening to excite this fall (and spend this winter), optics will be heavily weighed in the Bronx.
Oliver Marmol, Cardinals
This is Marmol's third season with the St. Louis Cardinals, and his teams' results have varied wildly. The Cardinals won the NL Central in 2022, posted their worst record since 1995 in '23, and sit at 76–75 this year with their playoff hopes all but extinguished. That’s not what Marmol’s bosses had in mind when St. Louis was 50–46 and holding the second wild-card berth at the All-Star break, nor when they functioned as buyers at the trade deadline.
The Cardinals—who sent now-San Diego Padres manager Mike Shildt packing after three winning seasons in 2021—have some hard questions to ask.
John Schneider, Blue Jays
Once the initiators of one of the most well-regarded rebuilds in all of North American sports, the Toronto Blue Jays are a complete mess—their .477 winning percentage would be a five-year low as it stands. Neither of Schneider's pair of playoff trips have resulted in a win; the Blue Jays' last playoff win as a franchise, in fact, came in the 2016 ALCS.
The clock is ticking on superstar Vladimir Guerrero Jr., a free agent after the 2025 season. Toronto needs the kind of manager that can serve as a living, breathing pitch to Guerrero—is Schneider that manager? Blue Jays brass will need to answer that question this winter.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Five MLB Managers Who Could Be on the Hot Seat This Offseason.
