ARLINGTON, Texas — As every single MLB team faces an uncertain COVID shaped future, and contemplates further layoffs to its front office staffs, the first person to go should be the manager.
Or the GM can just pay the manager out of his own pocket, so he doesn't have to pick up his own dry cleaning or wash his own car.
In watching the 2020 World Series play out in Arlington between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays, it was sad to see how a job previously held by Casey Stengel, Billy Martin, Sparky Anderson, Lou Piniella and scores of others has morphed into GM Errand Boy.
What Rays manager Kevin Cash did to starting pitcher Blake Snell in the sixth inning of Game 6 on Tuesday night should not have been a surprise; it just further demonstrates that managers are not thinking on their own, and are not running the on-the-field product as they should be allowed.
The act was not solely on Cash; GM Erik Neander shares in this stupidity.
Since all of sport right now is a mess, every MLB team should mandate that their Smartest Guy In The Room GMs assume the role of manager until fans are back in the seats, and we have something resembling a normal baseball season.
Not only would it pique our interest, but it would force every GM to learn what it's like to be around these people during an actual game, and feel the humanity involved.
There is a flaw in any process, and the evolution of the current form of the MLB GM is revealing major holes and deficiencies.
Baseball's evolved way of handling a game continues to strip a manager of decision-making according to his own instincts strictly in favor of an Excel sheet that says what to do for every single situation.
There was no rational reason a manager should have taken Snell out of the game in that spot. The Rays were winning 1-0, and Snell had allowed two hits in 5 1/3 innings with nine strikeouts and zero walks on 73 pitches.
There was one out in the sixth inning when he allowed a single, and then he was taken out. He left, the Rays gave up two runs in the inning, and when on to lose, 3-1.
One former MLB manager told me examples like this are not as a result of a text message sent from the GM to the manager telling him what to do. This sort of move is planned out before the game, and there is no deviation from it.
Having a plan is sound idea. Not allowing a manager to act on what his eyes see — in this case a dominating pitcher who is overpowering a lineup — makes the plan moronic.
Because the plan said that once Snell went through the Dodgers' batting order for the third time, which he was about to do, and the numbers were no longer in his favor.
Analtyics and data-driven evaluation for everything is here to stay, but just because it's from a computer doesn't mean it's always correct.
If there is any lesson to come out of this Game 6 embarrassment — and not just for the Rays — it is that every front office needs to evaluate itself beyond their own printouts.
Every single GM who has embraced data-evaluation, which is basically all of them at this point, should stop. There is no foolproof plan.
All of these guys need to turn off their computers and take the time to learn about their personnel, their people, because those are the guys who play the game and who drive their sport.
If they refuse to do so, just stop with the charade and fire the manager.
