There were a couple of surprise additions to the MLB managerial carousel this offseason — making it a shocking 10 clubs to make a change — but that paled in comparison the the out-of-the-box decisions made by teams when choosing their bench bosses for the 2026 season and, in most cases, beyond.
Who was the best hire? The worst? Only time will tell that. For now, we can come up with of what that looks like without each skipper knowing who will be on their roster for the 2026 season. So let’s dig in.
10. Warren Schaeffer, Rockies
Is there a spot lower than 10? Big eye roll to this one. Schaeffer had been the third base coach when took over as the interim manager when Bud Black was fired May 11 and the Rockies sporting a 7-33 record. Schaeffer also becomes the first notable move by Paul DePodesta, the new president of baseball operations who spent the last 10 years in the NFL after being part of the “Moneyball” Oakland A’s.
Schaeffer spent four years managing in the Rockies’ minors before joining the big-league staff. The Rockies did play better once Schaeffer took over, but it was hard to play much worse. They had lost 24 of their previous 27 games, with all of the losses coming in separate eight-game losing streaks. From there, the Rockies went 36-86, still a paltry .295 winning percentage. But the Rockies avoided the ignominious accomplishments of the 2024 Chicago White Sox, who lost a record 121 games, by finishing with 119.
Hard to tell who might have wanted this job other than anyone in the organization, but Schaeffer’s role is more of a therapist on this team, trying to keep the clubhouse from getting too fractured with all of the losing.
9. Kurt Suzuki, Los Angeles Angels
Suzuki replaces Ron Washington, whose third-year option wasn’t exercised, likely due to a combination of his quadruple-bypass surgery in late June that caused him to miss the remainder of the season and the Angels’ second straight last-place finish in the AL West at 72-90. Suzuki had been a special assistant to general manager Perry Minasian for the past three seasons after concluding the final two years of his 16-season MLB career as a catcher with the Angels. And that, in a nutshell, is why he was hired. This feels like a huge diss by the Angels to the manager position as a whole as Suzuki only got a one-year contract, meaning he is a lame duck before spring training. That could be more of an indication of Minasian’s job security as well.
The other finalists for the job were former Angels stars Albert Pujols and Torii Hunter, both with similar special assistant roles to Suzuki, although Pujols was considered by multiple clubs to be their manager. Hunter was also said to be in the running for the Minnesota Twins‘ job and Suzuki interviewed with the Giants. Pujols and Hunter withdrew from consideration — perhaps over contract length — and Suzuki got the job the next day.
Could Suzuki help the Angels turn the corner? Sure, as long as Minasian and owner Arte Moreno give him better players to work with. But the Angels have one of the worst farm systems in all of baseball, coming in 25th in Baseball America’s midseason rankings, and there are holes on the MLB roster, not a good combination for a team higher than fourth place since 2018 and the closest finish in a full season was 17 games out of first place in 2023. You can like Suzuki the person all you want, but this just feels like a desperate move by a team that lacks an overall plan despite running a $210 million-plus payroll. A company man taking the job after at least two others rejected it.
8. Walt Weiss, Atlanta
Speaking of company men, Weiss is sliding over from bench coach to replace Brian Snitker. Maybe Weiss had been the succession plan all along. After all, he had been considered a managerial candidate in prior offseasons, but had seemed to not be in the popular picks for consideration this year. There were several things that went wrong for Atlanta in 2025, most notably injuries and injuries to the starting rotation. At one point, every member of the Opening Day rotation was on the 60-day injured list. No wonder why Atlanta finished 76-86 a year after losing the division title on the final day of the regular season.
Atlanta was thought to be one of the best jobs available this offseason, which makes Weiss’ hiring a little suspect. Alex Anthopoulos, president of baseball operations and general manager, always keeps things low-key when it comes to rumor-mongering for managerial searches or free-agent pursuits, so we will never know who for sure was a candidate aside from Weiss. With how long it took to announce Weiss, there was speculation that Los Angeles Dodgers bench coach Danny Lehmann might be the top choice. Instead, Weiss was chosen as Snitker’s replacement. Snitker and superstar right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr. Jr. had a bit of a rift early in the season with Acuna not on the active roster as he was making his way back from last year’s knee injury. Did Weiss help smooth out that relationship? If so, this could be a good first step, already with a healthy relationship with your best player.
This is a veteran team, so status quo isn’t necessarily bad, but with how intense the NL East will be in 2026, a new voice could help push Atlanta back to the top of the division. Weiss has previous managerial experience as he guided the Colorado Rockies from 2013-16, then joining Snitker’s staff as bench coach for the last eight years.
7. Craig Stammen, San Diego Padres
A former pitcher as a manager? And a reliever at that? That is the route the Padres took following Mike Shildt’s resignation, which was one of the top two shocking openings. Shildt said his health had suffered during the season and he had been threatened by bettors, leading him to step away with two years left on his contract. The Padres won 93 and 90 games in Shildt’s two seasons as the Padres’ skipper, nearly taking out the Dodgers in the 2024 NL Division Series (losing in five games) and falling to the Chicago Cubs in this year’s NL Wild Card Series in three games.
There was a lot of interest in this job, which has a good roster and plays in packed home stadium nightly. Pujols, Padres pitching coach Ruben Niebla and Nick Hundley, a special assistant to the GM with the Texas Rangers, were among the final group of candidates. Niebla would have been a popular choice in the clubhouse, but Stammen was well-known among the players, too. He played the final years of his career, 2017-23, with the Padres before having to retire due to an injury, joined the coaching staff as an assistant and then baseball operations. But he has no managerial experience and no real experience on a coaching staff. While Niebla, who was still under contract for a couple more years, remains as the pitching coach, Stammen has already brought in a couple of his own guys to fill out key coaching spots.
With Stammen knowing a lot of the inside workings of the Padres, this should be a rather seamless transition. The question will be: What type of stamp will Stammen put on this team? Will he simply be a front-office guy in the dugout or does he have some ideas to get just a little more out of the Padres?
6. Derek Shelton, Minnesota Twins
I can see ranking any one of the remaining six choices in pretty much any slot. Some of that is because none of the hires were flashy in terms of big names. That begins with Shelton returning to the Twins, where he had been the bench coach before becoming manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Shelton was the first manager to lose his job in 2025, getting axed May 8. Now he replaces Rocco Baldelli, whom he served under in the second of two years as bench coach.
The Twins finished 70-82, fourth in the AL Central and their worst mark since a 59-103 showing in 2016. It was a disappointing season marked by a massive trade deadline in which they dealt 10 players, including eight on deadline day. Second chances generally work out well, as long as the situation isn’t dire. While on the surface the Twins don’t appear to be in a competitive mode for 2026, there are nonetheless pieces to work with, particularly the starting rotation, giving some semblance of hope. That is, if the Twins don’t deal from their rotation for more prospects.
Shelton was in a no-win situation with the Pirates, who typically run one of the bottom-five payrolls in MLB. The Twins are a better organization and could get back into a contending role sooner than later. The question will be how much Shelton can learn from experience in Pittsburgh.
5. Don Kelly, Pittsburgh Pirates
When Shelton was fired May 8, the Pirates were 12-26 and wallowing in the NL Central. The move happened just as the best pitcher in MLB, Paul Skenes, was about to celebrate the one-year anniversary of his big-league debut. The Bucs entrusted Kelly, the bench coach, to guide the ship the rest of the season. The Pirates basically played .500 ball the rest of the season at 59-65. There was no real search as Kelly was given the full-time job a day after the regular season ended.
This would have been an attractive opening just based on Skenes’ presence alone, but the Pirates also boast a terrific pitching staff, especially the rotation. Kelly, born just an hour north of Pittsburgh in Butler, Pa., convinced general manager Ben Cherington that he was the right guy to help turn this team into one that can be a threat in the NL Central. Yeah, that also means Cherington now has to give him better position players to work with. You would also think that Cherington at least picked the brain of Skenes to make sure he was good with Kelly remaining as skipper as he is likely to be the one in charge for the rest of the right-hander’s tenure in Pittsburgh, barring something disastrous.
Kelly has already made changes on the coaching staff, including luring Bill Murphy from the Houston Astros to be the new pitching coach. Murphy had been one of the two pitching coaches the past four seasons for one of MLB’s better staffs. While Kelly has already put his imprint on the Pirates, but it will boil down to how the offense comes alive. Getting more out of Oneil Cruz is one step, but the hitting group needs an overall upgrade.
4. Tony Vitello, San Francisco Giants
Of these top four, only one has MLB managerial experience, which might be the most fascinating aspect of this entire top 10. Five of the 10 have never managed an MLB game before. But how about not even being in a professional clubhouse before? That is what we have with Vitello’s shocking hire by the Giants. Vitello is going directly from coaching in college to MLB, a transition that isn’t as big in the NFL and NBA, but feels like a much bigger challenge in baseball. Buster Posey, who became the president of baseball operations after the 2024 season, hasn’t been bashful in his first 13 months in charge and Vitello is his biggest gamble.
Vitello never played in the minors, instead finishing his career as a college infielder in 2002 at Missouri and promptly joining the Tigers’ coaching staff. He took over as Tennessee’s coach in 2018 and vaulted the Volunteers to one of the pre-eminent programs, not only winning but producing MLB-level talent. The Vols made the College World Series three times, winning it all in 2024. He had a very rah-rah approach during games, with his players expressing themselves in a variety of ways and sometimes rubbing opponents wrong.
But he also was very vocal, in a good way, about issues in the game. That was with a bunch of 18- to 22-year-olds. Now, Vitello will be in charge of a roster of much older players, many of whom will be making more than the $3.5 million he will be raking in. Vitello will surely become a top persona (just watch any of his interviews) and it could work out very well for Posey in the Giants, but there are likely to be some early obstacles and how those are navigated could set the tone for his tenure. One thing Posey has done that could be a huge boon for Vitello was bringing back former Giants manager Bruce Bochy as a special advisor to baseball operations.
3. Skip Schumaker, Texas Rangers
Schumaker is the only of the top five that had managed an MLB team before 2025. He also has big boots to fill, replacing Bochy, who came to an arrangement with the Rangers to end his days as manager after three years. Bochy led the Rangers to the franchise’s first World Series championship in his very first season of 2023, his fourth title after winning three with the Giants. Some of that could be that managing took too much of a toll on Bochy, who had multiple surgeries before joining the Rangers, including getting two new hips and a knee replacement. Watching him make pitching changes was painful.
The move also could have had something to do with Schumaker’s popularity for other managerial positions and the Rangers made a preemptive move just after the regular season ended. Schumaker had managed the Miami Marlins in 2023 and 2024, earning NL Manager of the Year in his first season as the Marlins went 84-78. Schumaker wasn’t a surprising choice. In fact, he was the most obvious choice after he joined the Rangers’ front office as a special advisor to president of baseball operations Chris Young a year ago.
So Schumaker knows what he wants to do with this roster and what is in the farm system that could help immediately. The Rangers have already shed some salary this offseason via the Marcus Semien trade and nontenders, so they could be active in free agency. The fact he wasn’t hired last offseason to be a manager was quite surprising, so the Rangers shouldn’t any drop-off from Bochy.
2. Blake Butera, Washington Nationals
To say that Butera was destined to be an MLB manager might be a bit of an overstatement, but he is certainly worthy of giving him the keys to your ballclub. Butera takes over the Nationals, who fired Davey Martinez on July 6 and put Miguel Cairo in the role for the rest of the season. The Nats were 37-53 at the time and finished 66-96, the fifth time in six seasons they finished last in the NL East. General manager Mike Rizzo was also sent packing the same day as Martinez, with Paul Toboni brought over from the Boston Red Sox to lead the front office.
So it is a new age for the Nationals, who perennially felt stuck in a rut and never finished better than 23 games out of first in the last five seasons. Butera certainly reflects that. At 33 years old, Butera becomes the youngest MLB manager since 1972. If you think that is young, Butera started managing as a 25-year-old in the Tampa Bay Rays organization. That led him to becoming the Rays’ senior director of player development following the 2023 season. So he knows his way around young players and the Nationals have a few of those who are ready to take the next step in their careers. That starts with James Wood, but also applies to fellow outfielders Dylan Crews, a former No. 1 overall draft choice, and Robert Hassell III as well as third baseman Brady House.
This is not to say the Nationals should be immediately elevated into contender status. The NL East is already tough and Butera’s arrival should make the Nationals more of a presence instead of an afterthought. The fact that he was with the Rays since being drafted in 2015, you know he has gleaned ways to make the Nationals a better team and organization.
1. Craig Albernaz, Baltimore Orioles
While not having any MLB managing experience, Albernaz should have been right at the top of every team’s search list the past couple offseasons. The Orioles are the ones who won the prize and get to see how he does. Albernaz is now the bench boss after the Orioles gassed Brandon Hyde on May 17 with a 15-28 and in the midst of a season-worst eight-game losing streak. Tony Mansolino took over from there and the Orioles went 60-59 to finish 75-87. It was a harsh fall from grace for an O’s team that had just made its second straight postseason trip with a star-studded group of young players.
Albernaz had been the associate manager under close friend Stephen Vogt with the Cleveland Guardians. Vogt led the Guardians to back-to-back AL Central titles in his only two seasons as an MLB manager. Like Vogt, Albernaz had been a catcher, although he never made the majors like his friend, instead spending nine seasons in the minors, all but his final year in the Rays organization. Albernaz, who only managed two seasons in the minors (2017-18), took his name out of consideration last offseason to manage the White Sox and Marlins after being a finalist.
With experience not only as a player and manager in the Rays system, he also spent time with the San Francisco Giants and has a good viewpoint that he will now impart on the Orioles. It isn’t far-fetched to say that of everyone on this list, with the exception of the Padres’ Stammen, Albernaz faces the greatest expectations for 2026. A return to the playoffs in a rugged AL East can only happen if Albernaz is able to draw the best out of young stars such as catcher Adley Rutschman, shortstop Gunnar Henderson and second baseman Jackson Holliday.