MLB: Don Mattingly, Matt Williams should be held responsible for postseason flame-outs

Should MLB managers Don Mattingly and Matt Williams be held responsible for their team’s postseason failures?

When the NLCS kicks off on October 11, the fanbases of two NL favorites, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Nationals, can likely blame managers Don Mattingly and Matt Williams, respectively, for why their team’s aren’t still playing.

Generally speaking, the importance of MLB managers is vastly overstated, particularly in the regular season, when the sheer length of a 162-game season evens out most of the advantages a strategic manager can give a team. The MLB playoffs, everyone’s favorite small sample, are a slightly different beast, and with fewer games to work with, a sub-par manager can quickly torpedo even the best of teams in October.

The Washington Nationals went into the postseason with the NL’s best record, at 96 wins, but bowed out of the NLDS against the San Francisco Giants, an 88-win team, losing the series 3-1. The Nationals boasted three of the best hitters in the league between Jayson Werth, Anthony Rendon and Bryce Harper, and had a starting rotation so good, Tanner Roak, who has a 2.85 ERA as a starting pitcher in the regular season, was in the bullpen for the playoffs, along with Gio Gonzalez, who despite a sub-par season for his standards, still had 162 strikeouts and a 3.57 ERA.

And a lion’s share of the Nationals failures in the playoffs can be attributed to  their manager, Matt Williams, who has simply been over his head all season in his first managing experience at any level, though he was a first base coach and third base coach for the Arizona Diamondbacks before he was hired to manage the Nats. Williams was a respected former player, but his first season in Washington has been rocky at best, including his odd handling of Harper and several of Williams’s moves have been questionable at best, or completely backfired at worst.

Let’s be clear: Washington’s bats were completely overwhelmed by the Giants pitching in the NLDS, so the Nationals’ margin for error was pretty slim to begin with, but Williams likely exacerbated the situation, first in Game Two, with removing starting pitcher Jordan Zimmerman with two outs in the ninth after a walk ended a streak of 20 consecutive retired batters. With the score 2-1 Washington at the time and needing an out for a win, Williams made the call for closer Drew Storen, who surrendered the tying run and led the game into an 18-inning Giants win.

Storen is a good reliever, and he hadn’t allowed an earned run since August 5, but Williams showed a lack of judgement in removing Zimmerman — if Storen had gotten the out, the point is moot, but it’s still silly to waste one of your best relievers on one out. But Zimmerman had also been pitching well recently — including a no-hitter in his previous start, his last of the regular season. And the walk issued by Zimmerman to second baseman Joe Panik was of the nibbling variety; Panik had been torturing the Nats’ pitchers until then, and Zimmerman was close to the strike zone, even though he missed, and was only at 100 pitches.

Williams said later he was “kicking himself” for the pitching change but also that the team “had a reason for the move.” Which is about as vague as a justification you can give for pretty much anything in baseball. Williams doesn’t seem to be very good with answering reporters’ questions in a way that doesn’t draw more fire and ire his way, and there’s actually a solid justification for removing Zimmerman in that situation, but Williams never mentioned the “third time through the order” penalty (hitters generally perform better the third time up against the same pitcher in a game), and it’s unclear if Williams  even considered this factor when he went to Storen, or if he just made the call for his closer “because it became a save situation.”

Williams was also ejected from the game in the 10th inning of Game Two, after second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera was ejected for arguing balls and strikes, Williams was tossed defending his second baseman, which is pretty irresponsible for an MLB manager to do during extra innings in game two of a five-game playoff series. Add his questionable bullpen management and his handling of Harper, and Williams certainly deserves a lion’s share of the blame for Washington’s flameout.

The Los Angeles Dodgers didn’t have the best record in MLB, but had a good one with 94 wins, and a staggering $235 million-dollar payroll. yet once again, the Dodgers are going home before the Fall Classic begins, and once again, Mattingly deserves a fair share of the blame for LA’s exit. The Dodgers lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, three games to one.

Yes, ace Clayton Kershaw was uncharacteristically mortal, giving up 11 runs in his two starts — including nine runs in his two seventh-inning meltdowns, both of which were sudden. So it’s hard to blame Mattingly completely there. And for as dumb as benching Yasiel Puig in Game Four was (and believe me, it was beyond dumb, as Puig is one of the best hitters in MLB, let alone in LA), it sorta worked out to a push, as Andre Either replaced him, and had two walks. Either’s defense was never a factor in Game Four, and about the only clear negative (other than not having Puig’s bat in the lineup), was Either getting picked off at third to end the sixth inning.

But Mattingly had $41 million worth of relievers to play with in his bullpen, if you include starter Dan Haren, who was scheduled to start Game Four but bumped for Kershaw when LA’s backs got to the wall. Starting Kershaw, the favorite for NL MVP, wasn’t a bad call at all. Dodgers relievers gave up three home runs and had a 6.48 ERA this series, and Mattingly’s reliance on traditional bullpen roles meant either relying on his starters (and pushing Kershaw to pitch the seventh in Game Four), or overworking his three reliable relievers (Kenley Jansen, J.P. Howell and Brandon League).

But Mattingly also partially made his bed — veteran relievers Chris Perez and Paco Rodriguez were left off the NLDS roster despite returning from injuries in September and pitching well in limited time down the stretch. Lefty Scott Elbert had pitched all of 4.1 innings this season thanks to injuries, but he was on the Dodgers’ NLDS roster.

The Dodgers lost in the NLCS last year, and many of Mattingly’s moves were brought under fire then, before the decision was made to retain him as manager. He might be on the hot seat once again this winter.

Nationals fans and Dodgers fans have a lot of blame to go around (and certainly shouldn’t discredit the performances from the Giants or the Cardinals), but in the MLB playoffs, little things matter. Small tactical advantages can be exploited, and Don Mattingly and Matt Williams allowed opposing teams to exploit advantages again and again. If the disappointed fanbases are looking for someone to blame, their managers deserve the heavy burden, and the organizations might need to re-think who they have at the helm of their teams.

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