Ranked: The 10 most overrated MLB managers of all time

Managers have to keep the ship steady during a marathon MLB season of 162 regular season games. Their decisions are then magnified if their team qualifies for the postseason.

The sheer length of the campaign, even dating back to spring training, makes the job of MLB manager one of the toughest in all sports.

With that said, a select group of skippers seems to receive more credit throughout baseball history than might be warranted. We’ll take a closer look at the most overrated managers in MLB history, with statistics sourced from Baseball Reference. The list includes one surprise as well.

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It’s a bit of a surprise that Mack might find himself on a list like this. He managed for a remarkable 53 years in MLB, and the most wins of any manager in baseball history by a mile. However, Mack also has the most losses in MLB history, and it’s also not particularly close there.

Mack managed from 1894-1950, and is a five time World Series champion. However, there were only 16 MLB teams when the skipper called it a career, and just 12 when he started managing in 1894. The shallower competitive landscape made it a little easier for Mack to rack up gaudy win totals.

Piniella is 17th on the all-time managerial wins list, with 1,835. There's something to be said for his longevity, but Joe Regan wrote a piece for Bleacher Report detailing the ways in which Piniella often came up short. That exercise mentions his stint as manager of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, which was an unmitigated disaster.

He did win a World Series with the Cincinnati Reds in 1990, but also presided over some extremely talented Seattle Mariners teams in the 1990s and early 2000s that can be reasonably criticized for their lack of success. Piniella managed the likes of Ken Griffey Jr., Alex Rodriguez, Edgar Martinez and Ichiro Suzuki, with no rings to show for it.

Valentine received a lot of attention for managing in large markets and having an exuberant personality. ESPN wrote a feature on him in 2011, saying that the Boston Red Sox hired “one of a kind.” However, his record wasn’t distinguishable from many other managers.

Valentine’s career mark is just a smidge over .500 over a 16-year period. He’ll be more remembered for the mustache disguise he donned after he got ejected during a game in the 2000 season. The New York Post and MLB’s website relived the stunt.

Gaston was the skipper who helped the Toronto Blue Jays win back to back World Series titles in 1992 and 1993, but didn’t have much else go right for him after those memorable moments.

After the 1993 World Series, Gaston’s Blue Jays didn’t make the postseason in any of the seven remaining seasons with him at the helm. That includes his second stint with the franchise from 2008-2010, with a completely different cast of characters.

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Bleacher Report wrote in 2008 and 2011 about Gardenhire’s perception being elevated compared to reality. They contended that the American League Central was downtrodden during his time as manager, which is what helped him win six division titles with the Minnesota Twins.

Similar to what has befallen Dave Roberts, Gardenhire’s clubs just couldn’t cut it in October. His team never did win an American League pennant, which puts him in the category of “best to never win.” By definition, that could be seen as overrated.

There’s no disputing that Mattingly was one of the best first basemen in MLB history. However, as great as Mattingly was as a player is how underwhelming he’s been as a skipper. In 12 years, Mattingly has a career record under .500 with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Miami Marlins. The Miami Herald tried to communicate how mediocre Miami was with Mattingly in the dugout in 2022.

The supreme baseball instincts that Mattingly had as a player doesn’t seem to have translated to his managerial career. His name is forever etched in baseball lore, and that might be the main reason he will get other chances to manage or coach at the MLB level.

Scioscia’s managerial tenure got off to about as good a start as possible. In just his third campaign, he led the Los Angeles Angels to a World Series title in 2002. His Angels teams were competitive for much of the 2000s, but things got ugly in the next decade.

New England Sports Network’s website as well as Bleacher Report have wondered aloud whether Scioscia is one of the most overrated managers in baseball history. In his final nine seasons, the Angels made the postseason just once. Mike Trout and Albert Pujols were present for much of that stretch.

Managers are often times remembered for how much energy they brought to a team, and it’s hard to find someone who brought much more passion to the game than Bowa. NBC Philadelphia, CBS News, Bleacher Report and others have had a field day covering Bowa’s tirades on and off the field.

Despite his entertaining antics, Bowa didn’t exactly stand out as a manager. He was most remembered for his time leading the Philadelphia Phillies, but that tenure lasted just four years. Bowa was also the skipper for some moribund San Diego Padres teams in 1987 and 1988.

Looking at Hinch’s accomplishments on paper would lead fans to believe that he’s one of the best managers in recent memory. His five-year window with the Houston Astros from 2015-2019 saw him win a World Series, and another American League pennant. However, his presence in one of the most controversial scandals leaves his true impact tarnished.

The New York Times took a deep dive into the Astros sign stealing scandal, which was confirmed to be in place by a MLB investigation. This tainted the 2017 World Series title, as the team allegedly knew what pitches were coming and conveyed this information via different channels. Hinch’s crowning milestone looks a little flimsier after this revelation.

It might surprise some to hear that Brenly was only a major league manager for four seasons, all coming with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Of course, he was the skipper when the team won their memorable World Series championship in 2001. However, Slate wrote a piece in 2001 questioning his managerial chops, which can be picked apart.

Naysayers might argue that Brenly didn’t have too many difficult choices to make in the 2001 postseason, as Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling took the ball more often than not. He would wisely opt to stay out of the way of two of the best pitchers of that era, but this decision wasn’t exactly rocket science. Brenly also didn’t jump back into the managerial waters to show what he could do with another type of roster.

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