Former Yankees (Showalter, Girardi, Mattingly) are taking over the NL East
The NL East is starting to look like a who’s-who of former New York Yankees. With the New York Mets hiring Buck Showalter as their new field manager, three of the five NL East teams have former Yankees at the helm.
Showalter, who last managed in the majors with the Baltimore Orioles from 2010-18, got his start managing in the Yankees’ farm system in 1985. By 1990, he was coaching for the big-league team, and in 1992, he was promoted to manager. Over four seasons at the helm in the Bronx, Showalter’s Yankees compiled a 313-268 record.
One of Showalter’s players was Don Mattingly, who’d spend his entire big-league career (1982-95) in pinstripes. He’d later coach for the Yankees from 2004-07, and coach and manager the Los Angeles Dodgers, before taking over as Miami Marlins manager in 2016.
In 1995, Showalter’s squad returned to the postseason for the first time since 1981. However, he infamously refused to fire hitting coach Rick Downs, and resigned from the Yankees rather than take the two-year contract the late George Steinbrenner offered him. In doing so, he missed a young Joe Girardi, whom the Yankees would acquire via trade from the Chicago Cubs after the 1995 season.
From 1996-99, Girardi would be behind the dish for the Yankees as they built a postseason dynasty, winning the World Series in four of the next five seasons. He also caught Dwight Gooden’s no-hitter in 1996 and David Cone’s perfect game in 1999.
Though Girardi finished his career in the NL, he returned to the Yankees as a commentator on YES Network, and then as the team’s bench coach. After a one-year stint as Florida Marlins manager in 2006, he returned to YES.
In 2007, the Orioles offered Girardi their open managerial spot, but he turned it down. Months later, the Yankees hired him to replace Joe Torre, who’d replaced Showalter in 1996, and had managed Girardi during his playing days. Girardi’s Yankees would win their 27th championship in 2009. The Philadelphia Phillies hired Girardi ahead of the 2020 season.
Now, the NL East is overflowing with former Yanks. In addition to Showalter in Queens, Mattingly in Miami, and Girardi in Philadelphia, former Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long and Mattingly’s son Preston joined the Phillies after the 2021 season ended. Even Washington Nationals manager Dave Martinez, though never employed by either New York MLB team, was born in Brooklyn and raised in Manhattan.
Ironically, the only manager in the division with no affiliation to the all-time leader in World Series championships is the current defending champ, Atlanta Braves skipper Brian Snitker.
So far, filling the NL East with former players, coaches, and managers from the winningest team in MLB history hasn’t worked, but maybe Showalter will be different. The division was MLB’s least impressive in 2021; no team won more than 88 games. The American League had seven 90+ win teams, including four in the AL East. The NL West had two 100+ winners, the Giants (107) and Dodgers (106), and the Central had two 90+ game-winners of their own.