“If just one guy is making the decisions based on what he knows, then he better be right 100% of the time, and nobody is,” Los Angeles Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. “You welcome that input, and it helps in your decisions.”
The changing role of managers is reflected in who’s being hired. It has become common for teams to tap recently retired players with little or no previous experience. This includes people like Craig Counsell of the Milwaukee Brewers and Brad Ausmus of the Detroit Tigers.
These managers are almost always known as “players’ managers,” probably because they were players themselves not long ago. It allows them to cultivate open, friendly relationships with the players they are leading. That’s why Bautista said he thinks “every manager would at least listen” to ideas from experienced players
The approach works, players say, because players and today’s managers have a lot in common, especially compared to front-office executives who have a bigger hand in “baseball decisions” than ever before.
“It’s managing the egos and being able to get them to buy into the decisions that are being made, because a lot of those decisions that are being made now are by people who, quite frankly, a lot of players don’t have a lot of respect for,” Headley said. “They don’t know them, they haven’t seen them around, and they’re not from the same background.”