Last week’s hires by the Nationals seem to reinforce the welcome reality that Mike Rizzo is determined to put his own stamp on the franchise.
Roy Clark, a Virginia native who’s worked for the Atlanta Braves for the past 20 years, joins the Nats as vice president of player personnel — essentially Rizzo’s right hand man. Also coming aboard are ex-Red Sox executive Johnny DiPuglia as director of Latin American operations; ex-Cleveland & Texas scout Doug Harris as director of player development; and Kris Kline moves up from assistant to director of scouting, replacing the departing Dana Brown.
The only drama left is who the field manager will be, and late last week Mike Rizzo called incumbent Jim Riggleman “a terrific in-house candidate.” As I’ve said here before, I can’t see that Riggleman did anything to lose the job, but frequently that doesn’t count for much, as Jim learned in Seattle in 2008.
One interesting rumored candidate is Cardinals’ pitching coach Dave Duncan. Duncan, who seems to be joined at the hip with Tony LaRussa, has been a big league coach for 30 years, and a pitching coach since 1982. He’s been with LaRussa since 1983 with the White Sox, and is unique in the sense that he’s a former catcher, not an ex-pitcher.
Only a handful of non-pitchers have become pitching coaches: Rube Walker with the Mets and Ray Berres with the White Sox come to mind; any others would require some research. The number of ex-pitching coaches who have managed is also rather short.
Roger Craig took the Giants to the World Series 20 years ago after having served as pitching coach for the Tigers and Padres, who he also skippered. Ray Miller managed the Twins and Orioles with little success. Phil Regan got one shot at managing the Orioles after having been a pitching coach for the Cubs and Mariners and, as some fans are fond of saying, “lost the clubhouse” during spring training. Dallas Green, Tommy Lasorda and Fred Hutchinson were all ex-pitchers, but none were pitching coaches before managing.
So, why don’t more pitching coaches pursue managerial openings? According to a few I’ve spoken with, it boils down to this: They don’t trust anyone else to be pitching coach.
No one understands that better than Mike Flanagan. Flanagan, the lefthander who won 141 games in a Baltimore uniform, served as pitching coach under Miller and Regan, and found himself relegated to a lot of standing around while his managers basically decided anything concerning the pitching staff.
I don’t believe that Dave Duncan really wants to manage a club at this stage of his career. What’s the upside, particularly with a second division club? He’s already the most highly compensated pitching coach in the game. It’s his niche. If he chose to become a free agent and leave LaRussa, he could stay a coach and still write his own ticket.
Duncan as Nats’ manager? Not a chance.
Phil Wood is a contributor to Nats Xtra on MASN. Contact him at [email protected].
