Well, we all knew the ax was going to fall on someone(s). First on the chopping block is Indians manager Manny Acta.

The Indians announced this afternoon that he will not return as manager and that Sandy Alomar, Jr. will be interim manager for the final six games of the season. Alomar will also be a candidate for the manager position.

Hiring Sandy Alomar as the Indians manager would be a great move on a number of levels. He’s respected as a player and as a coach. He’s a smart guy. But aside from his baseball smarts, people in this town love him. Making him the manager would be a good start at recovering some level of affection. Unfortunately, he’s not going to get a chance to prove himself in six games.

From the way I read the press release about this change, it sounds as though Chris Antonetti (and by extension, his mentor Mark Shapiro) will be hanging around. The release reads (in part): “I have great respect for Manny and appreciate the effort he exhibited not only leading our team, but also the contributions he made in our community over the past three years,” said Cleveland Indians Chairman/CEO Paul Dolan.  “I fully support Chris’ decision to make this change and am confident that he will lead a tireless search to find the right individual to lead the club to our ultimate goal of winning the World Series.”

Sure sounds like Antonetti has a job next season (in more ways than one).

This feels somewhat like a token replacement–the team sucks, dump the manager.  But the trade decisions come from the front office. The long-term vision comes from the front office. The player development philosophy comes from the front office. To paraphrase a commenter on this blog, Casey Stengel couldn’t have done much with this team either.

 

 

6 Comments

  • Bronn says:

    Susan, what do you think the odds are that Alomar gets the permanent gig? Is there anybody that you’d like to see get an interview with the club for the position?

  • Susan Petrone says:

    Bronn, I hesitate to even speculate on odds. I would love, love, love to see Alomar as the Indians manager. Sure it’d be interesting for them to interview Terry Francona (there were rumors–there are always rumors), but we couldn’t afford him. Alomar seems like the best, most logical choice, but the front office has made enough boneheaded moves that I’m not sure I trust their brand of logic.

  • Matthew says:

    The only outside managers I would consider bringing in are Terry Francona and Joe Torre. Either one of them would be a Buck-to-Baltimore move. However, as good as Buck has been, he wouldn’t have guided the Orioles to the playoffs if Andy McPhail and Dan Duquette didn’t make a ton if shrewd deals to bring in players.

  • Steve Alex says:

    Antonetti stays while Acta goes? That means Antonetti will again be deciding who to sign, who to trade, what options to exercise or decline, what packages we get for Choo and Perez. Does that make anyone feel warm and fuzzy?

  • SeattleStu says:

    Only the Indians would can their manager with 6 games left in the season. We can’t even fire people competently!

  • Swift says:

    As SeattleStu says, the part I don’t understand is why they did it with 6 games left. I would have done it a month ago, and that wasn’t a unique thought; it seemed every sports commentator in Cleveland was saying it. That would have given Sandy some time to prove himself and to set up the team he wanted for next season. If they were going to wait this long, why not just wait till the end of the season. Very weird.

    “This feels somewhat like a token replacement–the team sucks, dump the manager.”
    Yes, it feels that way to me; mixed in with more than a little of Antonetti protecting his butt by dumping the blame on Manny.