Madden: No experience needed to manage in MLB these days

There have been eight manager changes in baseball this offseason and almost all of them have the earmarks of analytics all over the hiring processes.

We’ve seen it coming — the gradual emasculation of managers by the analytic-driven GMs — and with almost all of the seven manager hirings so far (only Colorado is still looking for a new skipper after finally hiring Paul DePodesta as their new GM last week), the one attribute that seems to be missing was credibility.

It’s almost as if the GMs were saying: “Manager wanted. No major league experience needed.”

Of the seven hired so far, only Walt Weiss with the Braves, Skip Schumaker with Texas and Derek Shelton with Minnesota have ever managed in the big leagues. And of those three only Schumaker, who was 2023 National League Manager of the