Fastball

First-Time Managers Making Baseball History as Playoffs Set to Begin

With the playoffs beginning on Tuesday, there's been a historic amount of success from rookie managers.

Brady Farkas

Cleveland Guardians manager Stephen Vogt (12) looks on during the fifth inning against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium on Sept 21.
Cleveland Guardians manager Stephen Vogt (12) looks on during the fifth inning against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium on Sept 21. / Jeff Curry-Imagn Images
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As the Major League Baseball playoffs get set to begin on Tuesday, there has been a historic amount success from rookie and first-year managers.

Per Sarah Langs of MLB.com:

Joe Espada, Stephen Vogt, Carlos Mendoza

this ties the most rookie managers in a postseason, joining:

2022: Rob Thomson, Oliver Marmol, John Schneider

note: Pat Murphy was SD interim in ‘15, so is not officially a rookie

h/t @EliasSports

Not only have those managers taken their teams to the playoffs, they've done so in difficult circumstances as well.

In Espada's case, he was tasked with taking over for future Hall of Fame manager Dusty Baker. The Astros have been to seven consecutive ALCS's or better and he was the first-time skipper in charge of keeping the train on the tracks. Furthermore, he did it in the face of massive attrition to his roster.

The team didn't get one inning pitched from Lance McCullers Jr. or Luis Garcia, who were recovering from prior injuries. Furthermore, Cristian Javier and Jose Urquidy were lost to injury during the year. Justin Verlander missed large portions of the season as well and the group lost Kyle Tucker for an extended period of time with a leg injury.

In Vogt's case, he also took over for a future Hall of Fame manager in Terry Francona. The difference was, he was taking over a third-place Guardians team from 2023. His roster was also hit with injuries as relievers James Karinchak and Trevor Stephan were lost for the season to injury. Shane Bieber also underwent Tommy John surgery after just two starts.

And finally, Mendoza also took over for a probable Hall of Famer in Buck Showalter in New York. And, he took over a team that was thought to be rebuilding. The Mets traded away Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer last year and were still saddled with their huge contract payments, but they've found a way to overcome anyways.

The Astros will play the Tigers in the wild card round. The Mets will play the Brewers. The Guardians have a bye to the ALDS.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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