2010's Managerial Exodus Will Give Dugouts Different Look Next Spring

All this week, the FanHouse staff will look back at the most significant baseball storylines of 2010.

When the 2010 baseball season started, four of the top 14 managers all-time in terms of win total were at the helm of big league teams.

When 2011 starts, only one of those four, St. Louis' Tony La Russa, will still be on the job. Bobby Cox, Joe Torre and Lou Piniella all have retired.

That turnover was just part of one of the most active managerial seasons in the sport''s history. Twelve of the 30 managers who were in charge to start 2010 are gone, as are two interim managers.

Only 1992 and 2003 ever saw more movement managerially, 13 men losing their jobs in each of those years as clubs looked for the proper leadership.

For the record:

• Fired during the 2010 season were: Trey Hillman fired by the Royals, replaced by Ned Yost. Dave Trembley fired by the Orioles, replaced by Juan Samuel, who was then replaced by Buck Showalter. Fredi Gonzalez fired by the Marlins, replaced by Edwin Rodriguez. A.J. Hinch fired by the Diamondbacks, replaced by Kirk Gibson. Don Wakamatsu fired by the Mariners, replaced by Daren Brown, who was then replaced by Eric Wedge.

• Fired after the 2010 season were: Jerry Manuel fired by the Mets, replaced by Terry Collins. John Russell, fired by the Pirates, replaced by Clint Hurdle. Ken Macha fired by the Brewers, replaced by Ron Roenicke.

• Retired midseason: Lou Piniella from the Cubs, replaced by Mike Quade.

• Retired after the season: Joe Torre from the Dodgers, replaced by Don Mattingly. Bobby Cox from the Braves, replaced by Fredi Gonzalez. Cito Gaston from the Blue Jays, replaced by John Farrell.

Cox and Torre finished fourth (2,504) and fifth (2,326) in total wins and Piniella 14th at 1,835. All three trail No. 3 La Russa, who has 2,638 wins and is two seasons shy of moving into second place past John McGraw (2,763).

"I'll tell you what, all three are certain Hall of Famers," Piniella told FanHouse this year when talking about La Russa, Cox and Torre.

It would come as a moderate surprise if Piniella did not join the others and land in Cooperstown as a Hall of Famer. Only one man with more managerial wins than Piniella isn't enshrined, and Gene Mauch was a special case, having a losing record overall despite 1,902 wins.

This was the biggest exodus of top-flight managerial talent in six decades -- since four managers now in the Hall of Fame departed in a year's time. Connie Mack (first overall in wins) and Joe McCarthy retired in 1950 and Frankie Frisch (44th) and Billy Southworth (49th) followed in 1951. (For some perspective, Frisch was 15th and Southworth 16th in managerial wins at the time of their retirements).

Given everything, it's tough to argue that this wasn't the biggest loss of managerial talent in one year ever. But for the present, what does this managerial turnover tell us?

Well, big league general managers aren't particularly afraid of employing first-year managers. Farrell, Roenicke and Mattingly will be first-year managers in 2011, and Quade, Gibson and Rodriguez were untried when they were hired during the 2010 season.

First-year managers generally work cheap, and that fits some organizations well, but it's equally true that for every manager, there was a time when somebody had to take a chance on hiring him.

More than that, however, the managerial machinations circa 2010 underscored just how important winning is. If you want to keep your job, you've got to win.

Eleven of the 12 teams making switches from Opening Day until now finished the season with losing records. The only one that didn't was Atlanta, where Cox's Braves finished in second place after Cox let it be known a year ago that 2010 was his final season.

There were only five teams with losing records who didn't make a change. And four of those five -- Cleveland, Washington, Colorado and Houston -- made changes either during the 2009 season or afterward.

The only 2010 major league team with a losing record this year that hasn't made a managerial change since the start of the 2009 season was the Angels, who have gotten terrific mileage out of Mike Scioscia in the last decade. It's easy for Angels' management to look at Scioscia's track record -- 980 wins in 11 years, five American League West titles and the 2002 World Series crown -- and figure that finishing two games under .500 (80-82) was just a fluke.

Are there any more La Russa-Cox-Torre-Piniella clones out there? That's hard to say. It's possible that the Tigers' Jim Leyland (1,493 wins), the Reds' Dusty Baker (1,405), and the Giants' Bruce Bochy (1,274) might close in on 2,000 wins before they're done, but it's not a great bet. Cox managed until he was 69, Torre until he was 70 and Piniella until he was 67. La Russa will be 66 this season.

Longevity and durability are necessities, and that's not all.

More than anything, winning managers need that longevity to be paired with employment by a consistently competitive franchise. La Russa had that in Oakland and found it again in St. Louis. Cox had it with the Braves and Torre with the Yankees. Piniella never had that kind of always-contending franchise to direct, so his win total is exceptional, all things considered.

Leyland just turned 66. Baker is 61. Bochy is 55. Given everything, Bochy's tender age might make him the best bet to get 2,000, but the World Series champion Giants have yet to prove they're going to be competitive every year, although you have to like their chances with their terrific young pitching.

Scioscia (980 wins), Terry Francona (939) and Buck Showalter (916) all have more than 900 career wins, and while each man is less than halfway to 2000, time may be kind -- Scioscia is 52, Francona is 51 and Showalter 54.