3 old school managers Yankees fans shouldn’t be begging for (and 1 they should be)

Great Yankees Fit: Bob Melvin

For the better part of a decade, we wondered what a Bob Melvin managerial tenure with the Yankees' payroll might look like. The ex-A's skipper finally got the chance to turn around a big-budget roster with the San Diego Padres' mismatched crew in 2022, and after piloting a playoff upset of the Dodgers last fall, he may or may not be on the outs after his Pads coincidentally finished with the same 82-80 record as the Yanks. Peter Seidler seemed to hint this week that the inevitable divorce between Melvin and GM AJ Preller might not be so fated after all, and Preller followed suit later in the week. Regardless, Melvin deserves another big-market chance, and if the Yankees ever figured out a way to un-jumble their roster, they should be all over him. How long could this doomed marriage really last in San Diego, anyway?

If hired by the Yankees, though, Melvin would be dealing with a different kind of mania than the poking and prodding that has made his life by the beach so difficult. Hal Steinbrenner isn't the hands-on tinkerer that Preller seems to be. Rather, he's a money-maker who inherited a cash cow and still finds room to be "generally angry" a few times per year as the team flounders, but can't bring himself to care any deeper.

Melvin, an opinionated field general and tactician, would probably clash with Stein Lite over a defined difference in their respective wills to win. It might not work out here, but 2023 Melvin certainly has the recent bonafides the other older candidates lack. Unfortunately, if ever offered the job, he should pass.