Who Would Win a Home Run Derby of MLB Managers?

We have officially reached the All-Star break, as the festivities will commence tonight with everyone’s favorite event. The Home Run Derby. Eight contestants will square off in a three-round tournament to see who is the premier slugger for this season.

If Major League Baseball wanted to add a fun wrinkle to the All-Star festivities, could you imagine if they added a second Home Run Derby, where instead of seeing the top sluggers in the game compete, we get to watch current MLB managers take some hacks on the big stage?

Yes, it is an absolutely crazy hypothetical, but just imagine the fanfare that a manager Home Run Derby would get. Of the active managers in MLB, 17 of the 30 reached the big leagues as position players. For what it’s worth, six of the 17 were former catchers, as backstops always make for good managers.

Today, we are going to go through a fun exercise where we explore which current MLB manager would have the best chance to still swing it at a high level in a derby setting.

Establishing a Derby Field

Looking across our field of 30 candidates to compete in this derby, we are going to first narrow the field to the 17 position players who debuted in the big leagues. With all due to apologies to career minor leaguers like Carlos Mendoza (Mets) or Oli Marmol (Cardinals), they aren’t in consideration for this event.

Now to narrow our field further, we are going to eliminate all the managers who are older than 55 years old, as wouldn’t want to heighten the injury risk that would already be present with retired big leaguers trying to hit home runs.

This eliminates, Bob Melvin of the Padres, Bruce Bochy (Rangers), Scott Servais (Mariners), Ron Washington (Angels), Dave Martinez (Nationals) and Torey Lovullo (D-backs). Of this group, Martinez would be the best candidate, as he hit 91 home runs in his career.

This brings us to a list of 11 big league managers, who are all still shy of their 55th birthday. Let’s look at the field before we select our top eight to compete in the derby.

A few years ago, Carlos Beltran briefly had a managerial job with the Mets. Imagine adding him and his 435 career home runs to the derby field.

Before doing research for this exercise, I was convinced that Aaron Boone would have had the most career home runs, but David Bell was the surprising top slugger by a full 10 home runs.

As I looked to narrow the field to a top eight, it was easy to eliminate Dave Roberts and Kevin Cash as the two hitters with the least amount of career home runs. For the final elimination, I decided to remove A.J. Hinch, strictly based on one thing.

Skip Schumaker is jacked, and looks like he can still play in the big leagues today, even though his actual career numbers are a bit underwhelming. At 44 years old, Skip is one of our youngest competitors in the field and will replace Hinch for the last spot.

Seeding the Bracket

If we were going by the new rules of the actual Home Run Derby, this bracket would be seeded by how many home runs these eight hit in the first round, with the top four moving on to the semi-finals. I decided to take a stab at seeding the bracket though, based on who would be most likely to win it all.

No. 1 Seed: The “Young” Buck, Stephen Vogt

Only two years removed from playing and the lone manager of this group that has yet to celebrate his 40th birthday, I would say Stephen Vogt is an overwhelming favorite to win this derby.

Vogt homered in his final career game back in 2022. Marking his 82nd career homer.

Across his 10 big league seasons, Vogt eclipsed double-digit home runs on four seperate occasions, hitting his career-high of 18 home runs in his first of two-straight All-Star season back in 2015. Vogt is one of two managers from this field that was once an All-Star and the only one who was a multi-time All-Star.

No. 2 Seed: Most Career Home Runs, David Bell

David Bell gets the second seed of our fake tournament here, out of respect to the fact that he had the most career home runs. Bell was something of a journeyman infielder across his 14-year big league career, suiting up six different organizations.

Bell twice cleared the 20-home run mark in his career, first with the Seattle Mariners back in 1996, then with the San Francisco Giants in 2002. His best season was probably with the Phillies in 2004, where he hit .291/.363/.458, with 18 home runs and 77 RBIs.

It has been nearly 18 years since Bell played his last big league game, so it would be pretty surprising to see him topple Vogt.

No. 3: Seed: Former All-Star, Aaron Boone

It is pretty safe to say that Aaron Boone would have the biggest notoriety coming into this derby, both because he is the Yankees skipper and because of an infamous home run he hit while he was playing his lone season in pinstripes back in 2003.

While Boone’s signature moment came as a Yankee, he spent a majority of his career with the Cincinnati Reds, until he was traded to New York at the deadline back in 2003. That season, Boone was an All-Star, belting 24 home runs with a career-high 96 RBIs.

With a career .751 OPS, Boone has the second-best career OPS of any of the managers who would take place in our derby.

No. 4 Seed: Youth and Best Career OPS: Rocco Baldelli

Rocco Baldelli is a wild card in this derby, as he is just 42 years old and his career .766 OPS is better than anyone else in the field.

Baldelli’s career was cut short back in 2010, as he retired due to medical condition that forced him out of the 2010 ALDS when he was a member of the Tampa Bay Rays. Assuming he could still swing the bat for a round or two of the derby, Baldelli would be a dark horse in this event.

No. 5 Seed: Dark Horse Slugger: Mark Kotsay

Speaking of a dark horse, how about a guy who was a steady contributor on big league roster across a 17-year span. Kotsay was never an All-Star, although he did get some MVP votes back in 2004, when he hit .314/.370/.459, with 15 home runs and 63 RBIs for the Oakland Athletics.

Kotsay played for seven different teams across his career, sticking with the Padres, Marlins and A’s for the longest period of time. Kotsay had the second-most career home runs on this list, and trailed only Craig Counsell when it comes to bWAR.

No. 6 Seed: Looks the Part: Skip Schumaker

Skip Schumaker is 44 year old, is less than 10 years removed from last MLB game and looks to be in really good shape. Let’s be honest, that could go a really long way in this particular derby.

Now with all of that said, if you forgot the type of player Schumaker was during his big league career, he was more a scrappy utilityman than a feared slugger. Schumaker’s career-high in home runs was eight, back in his first full season back in 2008. Overall, he hit more than five home runs twice across an 11-year career.

Now this is not diminish the career of Schumaker, as he carried a career batting average over .300 across his first three seasons from 2007 through 2009. In the final of those three years, Schumaker hit a career-high 34 doubles. A career .278 hitter, Schumaker had a nice career and has a shot based on age and athleticism alone, but he is far from the favorite.

No. 7 and 8 Seeds: World Series Champs, Alex Cora and Craig Counsell

Figured we would lump these last two guys together, as their career accolades are tied to team-success, which are traits that have carried over to their managerial career.

Cora is a three-time champion. First as a player back in 2007 as a member of the Boston Red Sox. He infamously won in 2017, as the bench coach for the Houston Astros. Cora followed up one championship with another in 2018, winning it all in his first season as the Boston Red Sox manager.

Now going back to his playing days, Cora was utlitly infielder who hit 10 home runs just once in his career and only cleared five home runs twice. At 48 years old, you can’t count him out entirely, but it would suprising for Cora to hit many home runs.

Last but not least, Craig Counsell makes the list as the only two-time World Series champion dating back to his playing days. Counsell scored the winning run of the World Series for the then-Florida Marlins back in 1997, scoring from second on a Edgar Renteria single.

Four later, Counsell won the World Series as a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks, and was the NLCS MVP during that run. Counsell was never known as a power hitter, and at 53 years old, it doubtful there is much left in the tank for him to hit one out.

Still, he does lead all current MLB managers when it comes to his career bWAR as a player, and as the two-time champ, arguably had the best playing career.

Would a Manager Home Run Derby Ever Happen?

Of course not! Dude who are pushing, if not past 50 should not be swinging bats at max effort for three whole minutes for our enjoyment. Although it would be an absolute spectacle.

Maybe we can arrange something during the Little League World Series where we send four of the younger managers to Williamsport to put on the spectactle for the kids, but in a much smaller ballpark where they’d have a fighting chance.

Until then, I am left with my own dreams of getting to watch Stephen Vogt square of in a Home Run Derby final round vs. Aaron Boone in the year 2024. It truly would be a thing to behold.