When a club starts to play badly despite high expectations, we always wonder what will happen to the manager. Will he stay in office? Will he lose his job?
And the truth is, it’s case by case.
With the Mets, for example, we don’t know what Buck Showalter will do since David Stearns hasn’t even officially arrived in town yet.
For the Cardinals, Oliver Marmol will be back. And as my colleague Pascal Harvey said, it’s a good thing since the club’s discomfiture goes beyond the manager.
With the Yankees, we’ll see what the owners decide, but even if Aaron Boone should lose his job, he will probably keep it.
But with the Padres, it’s different.
It’s a shame to say this since Bob Melvin is one of the great managers in major league baseball and I love him, but the San Diego Padres really need a change.
He is aware that his position is in danger. He also knows that his bench coach could take his job in 2024.
The difference between Melvin and the others? The way the Padres collapsed due to lack of leadership on the team.
I know that it is more than risky to put the leadership of a club in the hands of Manny Machado on the field, but that is precisely why Bob Melvin had to take on more. And he knows it.
I feel responsible for what happened. This is my most difficult season as a manager.
–Bob Melvin
Because from what has come out recently, we understand very well that the Padres’ season was a bigger disaster than we thought.
For what? Because the guys weren’t playing as a team.
Seeing that Manny Machado says the Padres “didn’t want to win as much as the others” is worrying. This confirms what Juan Soto said recently: the club gives up, sometimes.
This is serious. After all, the club had to be higher than in the standings (the Padres are 6.5 games out of the playoffs) and the manager must be responsible for this failure on the part of a big-budget roster.
His role was to bring credibility to town and the fact that players gave up and are looking for excuses is a failure.
This season, there was no esprit de corps in town. Next year, it will take time for the players to grow together.
Will it be without Melvin? I think it’s necessary at this point. And this, even if taking him out of Oakland two years ago was a big blow.
But the real question, I think, is whether it will happen without Juan Soto. And that’s really a completely different issue.
