Now that Paul Toboni is in place as the President of Baseball Operations, the attention now turns to the managerial job. Davey Martinez was a World Champion and the club’s longest serving manager, so nailing
his replacement is crucial. With a few firings around the league, there are a couple new candidates I wanted to explore.
The first name I wanted to touch on is a veteran of the game in Bob Melvin. A few days ago, the San Francisco Giants decided to fire Melvin after two seasons on the job. Melvin had been unable to lift the Giants out of the mediocrity that has become a pattern for the club since their magical 2021 season.
However, according to local sources, he was fired due to Buster Posey wanting to shake things up and bring in his own guy rather than losing the clubhouse. Melvin is a veteran manager who knows how to control a clubhouse, but is also not overly friendly with the players.
One thing that Davey Martinez struggled with at the end of his tenure was bringing accountability to a young clubhouse. The young players developed too many bad habits. While Martinez preached about ‘the little things’, the Nats did not do those things well.
While Melvin has had mediocre results in his last two stops, he has a strong overall track record. He did his best work with the A’s, where he managed for a decade. The A’s were constant overachievers during his tenure, with Melvin constantly doing more with less. Melvin won two manager of the year awards in Oakland and has three overall.
If I were Paul Toboni, I would at least give him a call. The idea of a no nonsense, veteran manager in tandem with a young, fresh POBO is an interesting thing to think about. However, there are some drawbacks here.
As mentioned, Melvin has been mediocre in each of his last two stops. In San Diego, he led the Padres to the NLCS in his first season. However, the 2023 Padres are one of the biggest underachievers of any team in recent memory. They had so much talent, but Melvin could not get them to gel.
Another factor is the fact that Melvin has only ever worked on the west coast. He is from California and has only ever managed for west coast teams. Does Melvin want to go all the way across the country and is he the right culture fit for DC? Overall, Melvin would be a steady hand, but not a game changing appointment.
The other fired manager to discuss is Rocco Baldelli. For me, he would be a more exciting appointment. He has a great combination of youth and experience. At 44 years old, he would be able to connect with players while also having 7 seasons of managerial experience to fall back on.
Baldelli was the Twins manager from 2019-2025. He won Manager of the Year in his first season and has led a competitive Twins team for most of his tenure. Twins fans are actually upset with his firing and see it as the front office and ownership throwing him under the bus.
Baldelli guided the Twins to success despite a dysfunctional ownership group that flirted with a sale but decided not to. Things went south for the Twins this season after a fire sale at the deadline and Baldelli took the fall.
Only 2.5% of Twins fans considered Baldelli the main problem in a recent poll done in the Athletic. From what I have seen, most Twins fans did not like the decision. It takes a lot to be widely liked by a fanbase as a manager in 2025.
For these reasons, Baldelli is my top candidate right now. Melvin is also someone to consider, but he feels stale for me and I am not sure he would want to leave the west coast. The fact he has managed for 22 seasons and for 5 teams and the furthest east he has gone is Arizona makes me uncertain.
Of course, there are other candidates besides those two. Former O’s manager Brandon Hyde knows what it takes to work in the area and turn around a rebuilding team. Paul Toboni could also work his connections on the Red Sox staff as well.
However, while researching, I have fallen in love with the idea of Rocco Baldelli. He did a good job in Minnesota in a tough environment and I think he can do the same in DC. Baldelli has a fantastic mix of youth and experience. On paper, he checks all of the boxes I am looking for in the next Nationals manager.
