To Los Angeles Angels fans, new manger Kurt Suzuki definitely represents a big change. He had a 15-year career as a big league catcher, including several seasons with the Angels, but Suzuki is also a rookie manager who’s never done the job before.
As it turns out, Suzuki will be an integral part of a new trend among MLB managers in 2026. According to Manny Randhawa of MLB.com, young managers are one of eight major trends that are surfacing in 2026, so Suzuki will fit right in.
A total of nine new managers were hired this offseason, and six are first-timers. They include Suzuki, Craig Stammen of the San Diego Padres, Walt Weiss of the Atlanta Braves, Tony Vitello of the San Francisco Giants, Blake Butera of the Washington Nationals, Craig Albernaz of the Baltimore Orioles, Skip Schumaker of the Texas Rangers, Warren Schaeffer of the Colorado Rockies and Derek Shelton of the Minnesota Twins.
That’s a long list, and six of the nine will be rookie managers: Stammen, Suzuki, Vitello, Butera, Albernaz and Schaeffer. The average age of that group is 41, with Butera being the youngest at 33. Vitello gets the vote as the most controversial, as he was hired directly from the college ranks by the Giants.
Only Schaeffer has experience as an interim manager, although we’re not quite sure what that counts for with the Rockies. A lot of these are risky hires, and Suzuki definitely falls into that category, especially as a low-cost option.
The big controversy with Suzuki is that he’s working on a one-year contract with options, so he either succeeds right out of the gate or he’s gone. The guess here is that he needs to get the Angels back to or close to the .500 mark, but he’s going to have to do it under some compromised conditions.
Specifically, the Angels aren’t spending a lot on players. This isn’t exactly front-page news with this club, but Suzuki’s pitching staff will almost certainly consist of multiple pitching reclamation projects, and Suzuki is relying on his expertise and that of new pitching coach Mike Maddux to coax some quality performances from hurlers who haven’t succeeded in years in some cases.
There are some quality players in the lineup, but there are also plenty of holes, including third base, left field, center field and second base. That’s almost half the lineup, so Suzuki is going to have his hands full wrangling with all the changes that will be necessary to turn the Halos around.