Will Valentine manage again in MLB?
Posted: Saturday, May 23, 2009 4:52 PM
Bobby Valentine is currently finishing his sixth season managing the Chiba Lotte Marines. Hard to believe it has been seven years since Valentine was let go by the Mets.
And this appears to be Valentine’s last season with Chiba Lotte. His contract will not be renewed after this season because he makes too much money.
There are lots of rumors, but reports are that Tadahito Iguchi, back in Japan after four Major League Baseball seasons, will be the next Marines skipper. More rumors that a group wants to buy the Yokohama franchise and install Valentine as manager.
Which begs the question: Will Valentine ever get another shot in MLB? He just turned 59, appears in fine shape (he was a diligent stationary biker in his Mets days, the only aerobic exercise he can undertake with the serious leg injury he suffered as a player), and has stayed contemporary with the game.
The hurdle, I think, is this: Brian Sabean, Giants general manager, once described managing in the big leagues as two stages: “first pitch to last pitch” and “last pitch to first pitch.” In Sabean’s view, the percentages were about 10 percent for the former and 90 percent for the latter. During the Giants’ strong years, Dusty Baker exemplified a manager who excelled “last to first.”
Valentine has no superior in “first to last.” I watched him up close for one Mets season as well as broadcasting his superb managing in the 2000 playoffs. For one game, he is the equal of today’s best in running a team.
But Valentine has always hurt himself “last to first.” Too often the focus turned to him, and it chapped his bosses. During his final Mets season, he inserted a minor league callup, Marco Scutaro, into left field during a critical August game against St. Louis. Scutaro, to no surprise, misplayed a ball that contributed to a Mets loss. Afterwards, Valentine claimed “our people told me he could play the outfield.”
The facts: Scutaro had played five games in right field that year, his seventh in the minors. In St. Louis, when Valentine played him in left field, it was Scutaro’s eighth major league game. After a long struggle through the minors, he finally reached the majors, only to be placed in a position where he could most likely fail by a very smart manager, who proceeded to lay all the blame on the Mets’ baseball operations personnel. And you wonder why Valentine was fired after that season.
Players saw that incident and reacted to ownership. There was no doubt that Valentine lost the core of the Mets’ clubhouse that season, the same core that he led to the World Series two years earlier.
Valentine should manage in the majors again. He is too smart about the game, and too good at running a game to not get another chance. His burden is to convince one more team that he can master the “last to first.”
Switching topics to Jake Peavy, and the fallout from him rejecting a trade to the White Sox. His stance raises the question will teams continue to dole out complete no-trade clauses? More than the money, the no-trade handcuffs the ability of teams to react and respond to situations they can never foresee at the time long-term contracts are signed. I’ll be shocked if any but the top spending teams are willing to discuss no-trades.
