I agree that Joe Maddon was an upgrade to Rick Renteria for the 2015 Cubs, and I’m glad you agree that Renteria deserves another shot for what he did considering what he started with. I think Dusty has also earned the Nationals job, but I see what you’re saying. I think because he’s one of the few who has “broken through”, GMs are more comfortable offering him the reins than perhaps less-proven black and Latino managers.

Craig Calcaterra’s point about “baseball men” and Dave Roberts is also interesting. Inscrutable terms like this are often just ways to avoid admitting that a subjective decision was made in hiring. I fear Dave Roberts is just an exception to the rule rather than being indicative of the term’s expansion, but I also hope I’m wrong.

I think Meg Rowley is also right on about clubability and the fact that measures need to be taken at all steps of an organization before real change starts happening, and that mere “suggestions” have clearly not been enough. Until there’s diversity among several levels of decision-making, we’ll keep seeing these laughably low numbers of non-white managers.

We’ve seen a recent spike in former players being hired as managers (though I suspect that will subside), but the *real* trend is FOs hiring the one guy who they trust will implement their plan without complaint. And so, those GMs and Presidents of Baseball Ops go to the guys who look like them and who reinforce their baseball world views, constricting the hiring process and further reifying white, male gatekeeeping.

Dave Roberts is the one important and interesting exception here. I think there are two good, recent pieces that touch on these thoughts, but there’s a lot of development left to be done.

Meg Rowley on “clubability” http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=27822

Craig Calcaterra on Roberts and “Baseball Men”
http://mlb.nbcsports.com/2015/12/09/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-a-baseball-man/