The MLB season has reached its halfway point, and there are several managers whose tenure with their clubs may be short-lived.
Patience isn’t a friend to big league managers. Two teams, the Philadelphia Phillies and the Boston Red Sox, gave walking papers to their skippers in April. Less than one week ago, it was the New York Mets requiring their leader in the dugout to clean out his office. With half a season remaining on the 2026 schedule, and weeks away from the All-Star Game break, teams’ owners are demanding results reflecting, in many cases, the hundreds of millions of dollars invested in payrolls.
Perhaps the opinion of the late Baseball Hall of Fame manager Leo Durocher given in his 1975 autobiography “Nice Guys Finish Last” best sums up the lack of employment security tied to being one of 30 MLB skippers. “If you don’t win, you’re going to be fired. If you do win, you’ve only put off the day you’re going to be fired.”
Among MLB’s six divisions, there are currently a half dozen managers that could be categorized as being on the hot seat and facing dismissal.
The Los Angeles Angels are currently in last place in their American League West division (36–49), 6.5 games behind first place Texas. First-year skipper Kurt Suzuki, who was still playing in 2022 for the Angels, is working on a one-year contract. With the impending work stoppage looming over the 2027 MLB season, it’s unlikely that Angels’ owner Arte Moreno or whoever the new general manager is, will retain Suzuki going forward.
With Los Angeles’s star player Mike Trout having a better season than most saw coming with 17 home runs and a .866 OPS, this could be the year that the 16-year veteran agrees to be traded. Trout, 34, although not embarrassing himself on the field, is no longer performing at a level that saw him claim three American League MVP awards. With no previous coaching experience on the MLB level, and given that the Angels are off to a slow start this season, Moreno may pull the trigger sooner than the end of September in deciding whether to keep Suzuki in charge of his 26-man roster.
The New York Mets have the highest team payroll for the 2026 season—$357 million-plus per USA Today—and the team is in last place, at 35–49, in the National League East. On Friday, rookie manager Carlos Mendoza was shown the door by club owner Steve Cohen. Andy Green, a former San Diego Padres manager, has replaced Mendoza on an interim basis through the end of the season. Green has been serving the Mets as senior vice president of player development.
Being 15 games behind division-leading Atlanta Braves, Green is expected to be watching over the club’s farm system come October. In the meantime, several high-power names are already projected to apply for the Mets job. Future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols is among those who have already expressed interest in picking the team up where Mendoza and Green will have left it.
“I'd love to get the opportunity,” Pujols said during a June 27 MLB Network appearance. “Who doesn’t want to take that job, especially with the history in that town that that team has? You have an owner who wants to win, wants to spend. That’s always huge. You have the talent on the field, although this year hasn’t been great for them because of injuries.”
Kansas City Royals manager Matt Quatraro is in his fourth season leading the American League Central club, and they are in last place (35–50), 9.5 games behind the first-place Chicago White Sox. Once during Quatraro’s tenure the Royals qualified for the postseason. Kansas City lost in the 2024 ALDS to the New York Yankees. With the Royals ranked 14th in batting and 25th in pitching among 30 clubs, all signs are leading to Quatraro packing his bags, sooner than later, at Kauffman Stadium.
The San Francisco Giants’ experiment of hiring Tony Vitello as their manager is off to a rousing disappointment. Vitello is the first head coach coming directly from the college ranks in the MLB without any prior professional coaching experience. With shortstop Willy Adames’ batting average continuing to sink, third baseman Matt Chapman’s power numbers also tanking, and with the seemingly always malcontent first baseman Rafael Devers hitting .240, the Giants just may bite the bullet on Vitello’s contract in the coming months, and start another search for a more seasoned skipper.
A. J. Hinch is seen by many as being on thin ice, when it comes to completing his sixth season as the Detroit Tigers manager. His 429–465 regular season Tigers managerial record is unimpressive. Detroit will likely be dealing its superstar southpaw pitcher Tarik Skubal by or on the August 3 trade deadline. With injuries this season to key players Justin Verlander, Parker Meadows, and Gleyber Torres, the 4th place American League Central Tigers haven’t demonstrated the ability to flip the switch and make a run for the postseason. Hinch’s gravitas appears to be all but worn out in the Motor City.
John Schneider has been piloting the Toronto Blue Jays since July 2022. At the rate his club is playing this season, Schneider may not make it through July 2026. Having guided Toronto to Game 7 of last fall’s World Series, the Blue Jays’ reversal of fortune has them 10.5 games behind the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League East standings. Vladimir Guerrero has clubbed just four home runs at the season’s halfway point. Designated hitter George Springer is batting .220. Third baseman Kazuma Okamoto has a .238 average, and opposing pitchers have struck him out 108 times in 298 at-bats. Schneider has to change the direction in which his talented lineup is heading, or he just may have an early summer vacation.
It’s usually the players that make headlines on trade deadline day. This summer, depending mainly on clubs’ records, it’s the managers, coming and going, who could be the top MLB newsmakers.
