Bruce Bochy Old-School, But 'Open-Minded' With Rangers
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Texas Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said the role of a manager has evolved during his more than 20 years in the role, and he plans to continue to evolve.
Bochy spent about 30 minutes with the local media on Monday at Globe Life Field, a day that included a tour of the field, putting on his new No. 15 jersey and meeting with team scouts.
Bochy, 67, said that his biggest job is to make sure that he communicates, not just with his players and staff, but with the entire organization. He also said he’s open-minded about things like analytics.
“You know, I'm very open minded and it's one thing that I want everybody to know,” Bochy said. “Sometimes they look at a manager that's a little bit older and say he's old school, whatever. But I want the input. I want all the information I can get.”
Before taking the Rangers job, Bochy was interviewed as part of former Angels manager Joe Maddon’s new book, “The Book of Joe: Trying Not to Suck at Baseball & Life,” where he talked about his evolution as a manager.
Maddon lost his job earlier this year in part because of his disagreement with team management over the framework of on-field decision-making. In the book, he related a story late in his tenure about getting a call from general manager Perry Minasian asking him to pull a player in a blowout win. Maddon wrote that he drew a line there, and that ultimately led to his firing.
Among the other managers Maddon and his co-author, Tom Verducci, spoke to was Bochy. And he talked about his enjoyment of managing in the final years of his career.
"I would say it was less fun," Bochy said. "I came up with the more traditional way of managing. I made the calls. I made the lineups. You could see how the game was changing, and that's fine."
Among the changes in the game, analytics is a significant part of the game and team officials tend to have a more significant role in the day-to-day management of the lineup. It’s no longer an era of giving the ingredients to the manager. The general managers and analytics department help the managers cook the dish from day-to-day.
So is Bochy in the non-analytics camp or the analytics camp? Or is he straddling the line? Is “less fun,” as he is quoted, a problem?
It might not be. Giants Baseball Insider wrote about Bochy’s quotes in the book. It’s not necessarily how he feels about analytics, but more about what a manager has to do now to be successful in this new age.
"You need a different style of leadership today," Bochy said in the book. "A manager has to sell it. You can't just tell a guy what to do. That's why relationships are so important. ... In some respects, leadership can be a little easier and less stressful because a lot of times the player knows it's not the manager's call."
Bochy reiterated that approach on Monday.
“I think a manager today has to be able to communicate and connect with more people,” Bochy said. “That's what I hope to do and have that continuity. Make sure that we're all on the same page. It's just gonna be so critical for myself, the staff, to be connected with everybody. I have to have the ability to do that, to connect with front office analysts.”
Bochy agreed to a three-year contract with the Rangers on Friday. He is the 20th full-time Rangers manager, but the first to come to Texas having previously led a team to a World Series title as a manager.
Bochy has a record of 2,003-2,029 with the San Diego Padres (1995-2006) and San Francisco Giants (2007-19). He was the National League Manager of the Year in 1996.
He had his most significant success with the Giants, leading the team to World Series titles in 2010, 2012 and 2014. The 2010 title came at the expense of the Rangers, who were making their first World Series appearance.
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