3:55pm: In a curious decision, the D’Backs have announced that Trammell will manage the final three games of the season.
3:22pm: The Diamondbacks announced that they have fired manager Kirk Gibson and bench coach Alan Trammell. The team will immediately begin seeking a new manager, according to the press release.
“Kirk has done an admirable job under difficult circumstances and we are grateful for his professionalism and his dedicated service to the organization over the past eight years,” said chief baseball officer Tony La Russa in a statement. “We feel like it is time for a fresh start and with our recent restructuring in Baseball Operations, we want to get started immediately moving in a new direction. We are also appreciative of Alan Trammell for all that he has done for the D-backs and have great respect for what both men have accomplished in the game of baseball.”
Gibson took over as the D’Backs manager midway through the 2010 season and has since compiled a 353-375 win-loss record. His 2011 Diamondbacks won the NL West with a 94-68 record — a season which earned him NL Manager of the Year honors. However, since that time Arizona has a pair of 81-81 finishes and is now set to pick first overall in next year’s draft, as the team is a virtual lock to finish with baseball’s worst record.
Gibson has at times drawn ire from media outlets for his old-school tactics, including an incident this season in which it’s widely believed that Randall Delgado threw at NL MVP candidate Andrew McCutchen on purpose for “retaliation” against the Pirates, who had seemingly inadvertently hit Paul Goldschmidt the night before, sending him to the DL and ending his season.
I blame the Diamondbacks for never giving his “Give everyone a stomach virus and hurt both their legs” plan a try.
Shocking? Hardly!
Bout time.
diamondbacks are not very appreciative of gibson and trammel since they were fired.
Well, it wouldn’t exactly be professional for La Russa to come out and say “Don’t let the door hit you in the rear on the way out Kirk. This is payback for that homer in ’88, and either way, you can’t manage your way out of a paper bag.”
LOL. But it would be hilariously entertaining and true.
Somewhere Gibson is pumping his fist
Same with the Dave Stewart hiring, there will be a long list of candidates, but we all know that when that one name pops up, he will be hired due to the TLR connection.
Jose “The Secret Weapon” Oquendo. He deserves a chance, and he’s about to get it. Good luck Jose!
Dave Stewart enjoyed that. Will they ever stop showing the Gibson HR. A’s and Giants fans vomit every time we see that.
And Dodgers fans like me rejoice every time it’s played.
Mainly because it’s the last time we won a World Series… *sigh*
Maybe Stewart is still upset about the ’88 World Series.
LaRusso needs to do something with his hair.
What hair?
Daniel LaRusso?
Some managerial highlights for Kirk Gibson:
Platooning Paul Goldschmidt with Lyle Overbay, because veterans!
With a 5-3 lead, plunking Ryan Braun intentionally to the load the bases for Jonathan Lucroy, who promptly hits a grand slam
Injuring Andrew McCutchen intentionally
The Ryan Braun incident was the most ridiculous thing all year
Too bad for him that he doesn’t manage the Twins. Talk about job security.
Maybe not… 😉
Do you think Gibson dragged his 1988 championship ring across the table on his way out as he was fired.
Does Gibson ever get another managerial job?
The Long Island Ducks might give him a look.
Interesting timing. As for Trammell, I wonder if he gets a bonus for the three days…before unemployment.
Kind of suspicious that the former Cards manager fires his current team’s manager and bench coach just as his old team comes into town…in the middle of a pennant race against his former team’s (now) chief rivals.
hmm…collusion much?
I was going to say the same thing but you beat me to it
He’d deny it and then tell you that collusion requires him to act illegally or unethically and what he did was within the rules. I wonder if there is some leftover dispute with the Cardinals that could call for a beanball by the unwritten rules.
I can understand La Russa wanting to clean house and start over.
Gibson and Trammel were not the problems though.
GM Kevin Towers took a winning ballclub that Gibson lead to a Division Title
and the playoffs and for what Gibson received the Manager of the Year Award.
and tinkered with it too much….
Towers made some very bad trades where he did not get equal value
back for the deals or anything close to equal value.
Towers also signed some marginal players to long term extensions..
With the injuries, bad signings, bad trades and bad player personnel moves,
Gibson’s and Trammel’s hands were ted.
They could not win with the presently constructed roster.
Heck, Tony La Russa could not win managing the presently constructed ballclub in AZ.
I dunno if they’re that bad. With Goldschmidt, Corbin and Arroyo and a bit of luck that’s a 500 team.
Sad that the one they kept on was Towers. He proved to be a terrible GM for the Diamondbacks and hurt their well planned minor league system. Gibson was fine as a manager. He made mistakes, but on the seasons his team had a chance he was fired up and got the team to play well. This season really drug him down, so it may have been healthy what happened. Not sure why they didn’t give Trammel a shot to manage, I mean, beyond the three days. NOT firing him and having him manage for three days, then adding him to a list to interview would have been better. Trammel seemed like a good manager to me.
Hopefully a lesson is learned about firing? Something like, if you fire the manager and his bench manager, but haven’t found a replacement quickly it can be bad. This is the first flop for an inexperienced Tony LaRussa and his new inexperienced GM. Such an odd way things are progressing:
1. TLR hired and he waits much of the season to do anything.
2. He takes the GM position from Towers, but does not fire him.
3. He says Gibson is safe, has motivated his players and that the new GM will decide things.
4. He hires his guy Stewart.
5. Stewart promptly fires Gibson and Trammel.
6. Asks Trammel to come back and manage the last three days.
The questions which arise:
1. Why retain Towers?
2. Why fire Gibson with three days left?
3. Why fire Trammel and then ask him back for three games?
4. Will all TLR hires be a simple his guy pick?
5. Is there any chance under TLR that a best candidate is chosen?
The real lack of planning apparent in these decisions has me worried about the future of my favorite baseball team.
If I were Stewart, I’d ask Tony to manage team and get out of any personal decisions.
No one saw that coming.
what was the big rush?
Hope Trammell returns to the Tigers in some capacity. He didn’t really get a chance when he was managing them with no talent to work with, but played a big part in building a winning culture. It was after he left they brought in the talent (Magglio, Pudge, Miggy) to build on what he had done.
I remember reading somewhere (Gammons, I think) that the Detroit players all hate Trammell when he was manager. Any truth to the rumors?
Prediction: Phil Nevin will the next DBacks manager.
Why didn’t they just wait like 3 days?
He had language in his contract that forced the team to exercise a two-year option or let him go on this day. It’s a shrewd move on his part, because this obviously looks bad even with that knowledge. The D-backs are simply not run well.
talkin’ about Matt Willians getting the hell out to manage the Nats, he would have been fire too if he was in the Dbacks staff as well
This just seems personal. Why not? There are 3 meaningless games left. Why not just let them stay the weekend?
I think the Nationals may let Williams go and he will take the Diamondbacks job.