Somehow, perhaps the two most discussed managers of the 2026 World Baseball Classic are 1) a former utility infielder who made it to the championship game despite a series of gaffes and 2) a retired backup catcher whose team celebrated home runs with shots of espresso.
Unlike Team USA skipper Mark DeRosa, though, Team Italy manager Francisco Cervelli has earned continued extensive praise throughout the WBC. Although Italy’s run at a championship ended with Monday’s loss to Venezuela, he turned heads throughout the tournament not only for the team’s success but for the energy and enthusiasm it brought to the ballpark
Then again, Cervelli, who turned 40 on March 6, is no stranger to winning. The Yankees reached the postseason four times during his seven seasons in the Bronx, with him serving as the third-string catcher during the 2009 World Series run. The Pirates’ most recent postseason appearance came in 2015 with Cervelli as the everyday backstop.
Now, questions are mounting regarding Cervelli’s potential future as an MLB manager. Numerous Team Italy players, including first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino and pitcher Kyle Nicolas, have vouched for Cervelli to get an opportunity in a big-league dugout.
“He’s just been really special,” Pasquantino told the Post-Gazette. “He’s surrounded himself by some really good baseball people on the coaching staff [who] have helped him a lot. … It’s been incredible to watch him just get better in the short span.”
So, which teams should try to hire Cervelli next offseason? For this list, I’ve opted to rank the teams in alphabetical order, though I will note the team that I believe makes the most sense here. Not that I expect that the team in question would listen to me, of course.
Honorable mention: Pittsburgh Pirates
Cervelli knows the Pirates well, hitting .264 with a .735 OPS over parts of five seasons in Pittsburgh. Those suggesting the Pirates consider bringing Cervelli back are forgetting one key detail: Pittsburgh named Don Kelly the full-time manager this past offseason after he went 59–65 as the interim last year. Even with the added external pressure of needing to win so long as Paul Skenes is around, I’m skeptical that the Pirates would fire Kelly unless the 2026 season was historically bad.
The counter, though, is what happens if Kelly doesn’t impress management when given 162 games? In theory, I don’t disagree, except that Kelly managed 124 of the Pirates’ 162 games a year ago. This isn’t an instance of someone getting a full-time job after managing 45 games, nor is it comparable to an NFL assistant going 2–4 as the interim coach and then looking totally lost the next year.
We can say whatever we want about the Pirates, but I think that they made their bed with Kelly and they’ll sleep in it for longer than one year.
Arizona Diamondbacks
Incredibly, Torey Lovullo is entering his 10th season with the Diamondbacks, easily making him the longest-tenured manager in club history. However, Arizona has only made the playoffs twice in that span, with the 2023 miracle run to the World Series likely buying him added time.
For most of Lovullo’s tenure, the D-backs have been good, but not good enough. He’s recorded winning seasons in five of his eight full years — the Diamondbacks went 25–35 during the shortened COVID season — but Arizona has never won the NL West, and they've advanced beyond the NLDS just once.
At what point, then, does the team decide it’s time to try something else? Cervelli would be fresh blood, and maybe that’s what this organization needs after a repetitive decade.
Boston Red Sox
As I’ll continue pointing out, Red Sox lead baseball executive Craig Breslow did not hire Cora, either during his first stint managing the Red Sox from 2018–19 or his return after the 2020 season. Barring a deep playoff run this year, I personally won’t be surprised to see Boston cut ties with the skipper upon season’s end.
If Yankees and Red Sox players trading teams feels weird, just imagine how it’ll feel if an ex-Yankee becomes the next manager in Boston. Don’t expect any sort of insider trading, though, partly because the Yankees–Red Sox rivalry hasn’t felt like a true rivalry in years. That’s a conversation for another day, though.
New York Mets
I have low expectations for the Mets this year, and looking at social media shows plenty of fans agree with me. The Mets finding ways to let their fan base down is a tale as old as time, and they’re still pretty damn good at it. Unlike teams like the Rockies or Browns, where you regularly expect losing and failure, the Mets excel at pure disappointment.
The fact that Carlos Mendoza survived last year’s brutal collapse is nothing short of incredible, though the clock is already counting down to his possible firing. Cervelli is obviously familiar with New York, and Steve Cohen pouncing on a manager who impressed at the World Baseball Classic makes far too much sense. (Initially, I typed “impressed at the World Series,” and I’m sure Cohen would have loved that typo.)
With that said, we’ll see how much power Juan Soto would have in picking the next manager if the Mets let Mendoza go. I’d like to think that New York didn’t give Soto a 15-year, $765 million deal just to ignore whatever he tells them.
New York Yankees
Is it a copout to suggest that the Yankees should target Cervelli if they finally part ways with Aaron Boone? Not really; this franchise loves bringing its own alumni home, as the Boone and Joe Girardi hires proved. As I previously argued, Cervelli and the Yankees are a perfect match.
There are two things that could theoretically work against Cervelli here, one of which is relatively minor. While still with the Yankees, Cervelli served a 50-game suspension in 2013 following the Biogenesis scandal, and many of the current power players — Brian Cashman, Hal Steinbrenner, president Randy Levine, etc. — were there at the time. Then again, New York welcomed Alex Rodriguez back into the fold after his own suspension, so I don’t think that would even come into play here.
But, as with Soto, we have to wonder if the Yankees will rely on Aaron Judge’s input when potentially choosing their next manager. Would Judge approve of a Cervelli hire, or would he rather the team look in another direction? But, considering the Yankees’ title drought, you’d also have to hope Judge’s priority would be the team hiring someone most capable of winning the World Series.
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