Los Angeles Angels manager Kurt Suzuki is stepping into one of the toughest job in sports with no direct experience, but many of his ex-teammates think he’s more than ready for the job.
This isn’t exactly surprising. It’s part of the drill with new arrivals in spring training, and it’s especially important for Suzuki given how tough his new job with the Angels is going to be.
San Diego Padres manager Craig Stammen is in the same boat as Suzuki, albeit with a better team and a better overall situation, and the former reliever praised Suzuki’s ability to communicate during the latter’s 15-year career as a big-league catcher.
“He was one of my favorite catchers I ever threw to,” Stammen said in a piece written by Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. “We really saw eye to eye on pitch calling. And he just really understood what made you tick and then got the best out of you. And he's just a good person. He's good at relationships, good at communicating; all those are great qualities for a manager.”
A medical degree wouldn’t hurt given the number of pitchers the Angels have brought in with an injury history, but the most relevant comments came from Stephen Vogt, another former catcher who was mentored by Suzuki and went on to become a successful manager for the Cleveland Guardians.
“He helped me just learn how to be a catcher,” Vogt said. “And he was very integral to my development, and I couldn't be more thankful for him. He’s not only a great baseball mind, but he's an unbelievable person and leader and always has been.”
Those comments are fairly generic, but Vogt also offered some thoughts about how Suzuki’s background as a catcher will come in handy as he watched games from the dugout.
“You make 170 in-game decisions every night as a catcher,” Vogt said. “They're different, but you know more about the speed of the game. So Kurt's going to come in, and it’s going to be seamless for him.”
The idea that this will be seamless feels like a huge stretch given the Angels’ situation, but former teammate Mark Kotsay pointed out that Suzuki has also been a special assistant with the team, and the new manager also has a reportedly strong relationship with GM Perry Minasian.
According to Vogt, the biggest challenge Suzuki will face is the amount of time he’ll need to devote to other roles as a manager. There are countless meetings and conversations with coaches, players and front-office staff, and there’s also the potential minefield that comes with talking to the media.
That’s going to be a huge challenge for Suzuki, regardless of how ready he is. The sheer number of players the Angels have brought in will be a logistical obstacle, and the task of evaluating them will be huge as well.
There’s a lot of hope involved in this hire, and spring training is the appropriate time for that. It will take a great job by Suzuki just to push the Angels back close to the .500 mark, and it’s not a bad idea to temper some of that optimism with a more realistic take on where the Halos are as a team right now.