MLB Managers Who Were Hired Just to Be Fired

by Jeremy Block - 5/5/2026

MLB managers who were hired to be fired Rick Renteria

The blueprint for a modern MLB rebuild is pretty simple: trade away every veteran, hoard draft picks, and wait for the process to work its magic. The thing is, while that roster is coming to fruition, the team still needs a manager willing to show up every day, take the heat from a frustrated fan base, and watch his squad lose 100 games a year.

The problem is that the job description has a built-in expiration date. Even if a manager is committed for the long haul to help build from the ground up, the reality is that the second those high-round draft picks turn into stars and the team is actually ready to contend, the front office suddenly decides it needs a “proven winner” or a “bigger name” to take things to the next level. Here are six MLB managers who were clearly hired just to keep the seat warm until the winning started.

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Russ Nixon (Atlanta Braves)

Taking over the Braves in the late 1980s was a difficult task for Russ Nixon. The team was in the middle of a massive rebuild, which meant he had to watch future stars struggle while they were still young and inexperienced. Hired in May of 1988 to replace Chuck Tanner, Nixon finished that first season with a 42-79 record.

Things didn't improve much in 1989, as the team went 63-97, but there were small signs of growth. During this time, Nixon focused on developing young pitchers like John Smoltz and Tom Glavine, who were still finding their way in the majors.

Even though the 1990 season started with some signs of improvement and future stars finally growing into their game, the front office called it quits with Nixon just 65 games into the year. He left with a total record of 130-216 in Atlanta, but the groundwork for the team's future success was already in place. The front office then turned to Bobby Cox, who took over the roster Nixon helped build and led the Braves to 14 straight division titles. Talk about doing the hard work only for someone else to get the credit.

Buck Showalter (New York Yankees)

Any coach given the offer to manage the Yankees has a big pair of shoes to fill, but walking into the Bronx in the early '90s required a manager who could install discipline in a clubhouse that had been all over the place for quite a bit. Before Buck Showalter took the job, the Yankees had bottomed out, finishing the 1990 season with a miserable 67-95 record, making it its worst finish in 78 years.

Showalter took over in 1992 and immediately turned the Pinstripes into a more professional ball club. Showalter eventually led the team to the best record in the American League (70-43) in the strike-shortened 1994 season and a playoff berth in 1995.

Despite posting a solid 313-268 record and dragging the franchise out of the gutter in just four seasons, George Steinbrenner pushed him out after a single playoff exit. Joe Torre was hired the following year and spent the next decade collecting rings with the exact roster Showalter had built, proving there is no loyalty in the pros.

Larry Rothschild (Tampa Bay Devil Rays)

Being given the reins to manage an expansion team from day one is probably the purest definition of what it means to have the weight of a franchise on your shoulders, but Larry Rothschild was up for the task.

Hired as the first manager in Tampa Bay history in 1998, Rothschild was tasked with surviving a division that featured the peak-era Yankees and Red Sox. He helped guide the team through a 63-99 inaugural season and followed it up with back-to-back years of at least 92 losses, finishing the 1999 and 2000 seasons with a combined total of just 138 wins. Not the greatest, but definitely the worst.

However, by the time he was fired 14 games into the 2001 season, he had a 205-294 record and a mountain of losses that weren't really his fault. How could any front office expect rings and deep playoff runs in just the first three years of a franchise's existence? It was clear that Rothschild was brought in to absorb the early-franchise embarrassment, but little did he know he was going to be dumped the moment the new car smell wore off.

Bo Porter (Houston Astros)

Managing a team that is actively trying to lose games for draft picks can be a psychological mind game for any manager caught in that position, but that was the daily reality in Houston for Bo Porter during the early 2010s.

During the peak of the “Lastros” era, the front office made it clear that it intended on tanking to secure future draft picks. However, it often looked more like an embarrassment than anything else, and Porter was caught right in the middle of it. In his first full season in 2013, the Astros posted a 51-111 record, finishing 45 games out of first place while capping the year off with a pathetic 15-game losing streak.

Still in the midst of a rebuild, Porter tried to show what he could do and managed to bump Houston up to a 70-win pace in 2014. But with a total record of 110-190, he was cut loose before the process actually started delivering any results. The team would go on to reach the AL Division Series the very next season. Porter took all the punches for a team that was outscored by hundreds of runs, only to be replaced right before the talent arrived.

Bryan Price (Cincinnati Reds)

In 2014, the Reds decided to shake things up by moving on from Dusty Baker and promoting Bryan Price from pitching coach to manager. While the move was popular with the players, he couldn't have picked a worse time to take over. The team’s winning window just slammed shut, after posting a 90-72 season under Baker. At the same time, the front office began trading away its best players to start a long rebuild.

What followed was a repetitive cycle of losing: 98 losses in 2015, followed by 94 losses in 2016, and another 94 in 2017. Fans were confused about the game plan, wondering if the team was actually rebuilding or just hanging in the mediocrity category until someone came up with a better idea. Either way, Price was essentially a temp—hired to manage a roster that was being stripped for parts while the front office looked for a new direction.

Price was never given a real chance to win. Instead, he was tasked with managing a team that wasn't built to compete. After a brutal 3-15 start in 2018, management finally let him go with a total record of 279-387. He spent four years taking the blame for a gutted roster, only to be fired right before things started to stabilize.

Rick Renteria (Chicago Cubs & White Sox)

Few people in the history of the game have perfected the art of being the “guy before the guy” quite like Rick Renteria. Before he arrived to White Sox in 2014, the Cubs were coming off a 66-96 season. Renteria managed to improve it to a 73-89 record while doing the tedious developmental work for young, upcoming talent like Anthony Rizzo. However, the moment a big name like Joe Maddon became a free agent, the Cubs showed Renteria the door.

He didn’t have to travel far for his next rebuilding project, heading to the South Side of Chicago to manage the White Sox. There, he went through three straight seasons of at least 89 losses, including a 100-loss disaster in 2018 where the team was outscored by 159 runs.

Just like his experience with the Cubs, the second Renteria actually dragged the team to a winning record (35-25) and a playoff berth in 2020, the front office decided it wanted a “winner” and replaced him with Tony La Russa.

Renteria did the homework for two different franchises and watched someone else walk away with the credit both times. He remains the perfect example of a manager who was good enough to build a winning ball club, yet never had the resume to be allowed to manage one.

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Start:	May 6, 2026 @ 11:45 PM
Expert:	Griffin Murphy
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MLB Managers Who Were Hired Just to Be Fired

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