When Stephen Vogt started managing the Guardians last year, it appeared to be a one-off. A former Braves catcher taking a manager role without much in the way of coaching experience, just briefly removed from his playing days (Vogt’s final season as an MLB player was just two years prior)? Who’d think that’d happen again.
But now, Kurt Suzuki’s been named the next manager of the Angels, and we’ve got, if not a trend, at least a pair. Suzuki last suited up as a player in 2022, and he’s been a “special assistant” to Perry Minasian since. Kind of convenient to be a “special assistant” to the guy that eventually decides whether or not he’ll hire you as his team’s next manager, I guess.
Anyway, who’s next? Tyler Flowers is around and hasn’t done non-baseball things since retirement. Brian McCann was around long enough that it’s possible. A.J. Pierzynski would, I think, be an utter disaster (managers are supposed to mediate issues, not cause them), but he is also a name on this list of former Braves catchers. Wasn’t Jonathan Lucroy a Brave for five minutes?
(And hey, it’s not like there wasn’t earlier precedent. Joe Torre was a Braves’ catcher before he was much of anything else, after all.)