Another one bites the dust

Buck Martinez is the latest manager to lose his job

Monday afternoon Buck Martinez became the fifth manager to be fired this season -- not including ex-Red Sox skipper Joe Kerrigan, who was given the boot in spring training. Third-base coach Carlos Tosca takes over on an interim basis for the Blue Jays, who are 20-33 this season. CNNSI.com spoke with Sports Illustrated's Jeff Pearlman about the dismissal.

CNNSI.com: Ever since GM J.P. Ricciardi was hired in the offseason, most people knew Buck Martinez's job wasn't safe. Monday's firing wasn't too surprising, was it?

Jeff Pearlman: It would have been really hard for Ricciardi to come in and just fire Martinez right away. Ricciardi is a fair guy and he probably thought Martinez deserved the benefit of the doubt. But firing Martinez now isn't surprising at all. If you asked people at the beginning of the year who were the most likely managers to be fired, Martinez would have been mentioned.

CNNSI.com: The Blue Jays have struggled for a few years. Does it seem like they just keep spinning their wheels?

Pearlman: There's a long precedence of new GMs coming in and firing their managers because they want to feel comfortable with who they have -- they want to have good communication. Martinez was a Gord Ash hire and if you look at Gord Ash's last few years in Toronto, he made some bad managerial hires. There's was Tim Johnson and his whole Vietnam resume scandal; then Jim Fregosi didn't last long; and now there's Martinez. So it's a mess in Toronto. It's just not a good situation.

CNNSI.com: Is it at all odd that Ricciardi made this decision Monday, just as the Blue Jays were coming off a three-game sweep of Detroit?

Pearlman: The Tigers aren't the Yankees. Plus, it's very rare that a manager can save his job by winning three games. I think most GMs make up their minds and then still think about it and think about it and think about it and then are finally ready they make the decision. Again, the Jays didn't sweep the Yankees or Red Sox. It was the Tigers. And prior to the sweep, Toronto was playing terribly.

CNNSI.com: The Blue Jays were 100-115 under Martinez, who became a big league manager straight from the broadcast booth. Was Martinez in over his head as Toronto's skipper?

Pearlman: The talent in Toronto isn't very good. And over the last few years, except for Carlos Delgado, the Blue Jays have shredded anything good they had. Alex Gonzalez, gone; Shawn Green, gone; Billy Koch, gone; The Blue Jays' pitchers haven't really developed the way the team wanted them to. Chris Carpenter, Kelvim Escobar, Roy Halliday; they haven't come along that fast. Also, outfielder Jose Cruz Jr. has never been what Toronto thought he'd be and outfielder Vernon Wells is taking a little bit longer to come along than the club anticipated. The foundation Toronto felt it had couldn't remain intact because of finances. So Martinez wasn't really managing a good team.

That said, I think most people would agree that he wasn't the best strategist in the game. Martinez got outmanaged a lot. A pretty fair criticism of him was that he wasn't very forward-thinking. If something was going on in the second inning, Martinez was thinking about the second inning only and not how it might affect the third, fourth or fifth. He's one of the nicest guys around, but managing a major league team is a tough business.

CNNSI.com: Oakland third base coach Ken Macha was the hot managerial candidate in the offseason. In fact, Toronto was one of the clubs that asked for permission to speak to Macha but were denied permission by A's GM Billy Beane. Is Macha once again the No. 1 candidate to replace interim manager Carlos Tosca?

Pearlman: I'm sure Ricciardi will ask for permission again. Macha is on everybody's A list as a potential managerial candidate. He's a really smart guy and extraordinarily popular with the players in the A's clubhouse. He's a very strong candidate. And then there are the traditional candidates -- i.e. Willie Randolph and Lee Mazzilli of the Yankees -- for Toronto to consider.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Jeff Pearlman covers the baseball beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com.

 

Related information

Multimedia

Visit Video Plus for the latest audio and video