First-time, former-catcher manager hires continue with Kevin Cash
The Tampa Bay Rays hired Kevin Cash as their new manager Friday, and along with it sent along a nifty little press release, with the following quote:
"Kevin is passionate, genuine and dedicated, and those attributes will resonate throughout our clubhouse," said President, Baseball Operations Matt Silverman. "As a catcher, a scout and a coach, he has always been a student of the game, and his communication and tireless work will put our club in a position to win, night in and night out."
Notice the mention of Cash as a catcher. In eight big-league seasons, the 36-year-old Cash spent 1,724 innings behind the plate.
Hiring catchers to become managers is nothing new, but the trend seems to be moving more and more toward it, especially if the manager happens to be young and a first-timer at the big-league level.
Prior to the 2012 season, the Cardinals hired Mike Matheny, a 41-year-old former catcher with no managerial experience to replace Tony La Russa. The next offseason, the Marlins pegged Mike Redmond, a 41-year-old former catcher with no MLB managerial experience, as their new skipper. Last offseason, it was former backstop Brad Ausmus, a 44-year-old first-timer, set to take over for Jim Leyland. And now it's Cash.
We could widen our search a bit to include Lloyd McClendon (hired by the Mariners last offseason for his second stint as manager) and A.J. Hinch (hired by the Astros this offseason, which marks the first time he was brought in as manager from outside an organization), too.
Again, this isn't new. World Series managers Bruce Bochy and Ned Yost were catchers. So were Mike Scioscia, Bob Melvin, Joe Girardi and John Gibbons. Fredi Gonzalez and Joe Maddon were catchers in the minors and Clint Hurdle mixed in some catching in his time in the bigs.
Add it all up, and there are 14 MLB managers out of 30 jobs with a professional catching resume.
SABR researched that from 1901-81 catchers were the most represented position among managers, but it was just 21.6 percent. Now that we're up to 14 for the 2015 season, it's 46.67 percent and going up.
