Craig Albernaz’s departure from the Cleveland Guardians seemed inevitable.
He was a strong candidate for MLB manager jobs last year, and it was only a matter of time before he landed one, as he did this offseason with the Baltimore Orioles.
Of course, that’s not great news for Stephen Vogt and his remaining staff.
With that in mind, the panelists of the “Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast” expressed their concerns about the change.
“For Cleveland, the departure creates a significant void. Albernaz wasn’t just Vogt’s associate manager. He was a close personal friend whose family attended Vogt’s introductory press conference, sitting in the front row as Vogt took the reins,” they said.
Vogt has been emotional when talking about Albernaz, who had a big role in what his boss was able to accomplish in his first two seasons.
Then again, this shouldn’t be the end of the world, either.
It happens, and it’s just part of surrounding yourself with capable underlings.
If anything, the Guardians need to give Vogt the freedom to decide on his next associate manager, as he will most likely promote someone from within the organization.
Albernaz by his side or not, Vogt has done more than enough to earn a contract extension from Cleveland.
His record is better than Terry Francona’s after two seasons, and he’s guided the Guardians to back-to-back AL Central titles.
It won’t be easy going forward, and fans have seen that it won’t always be pretty.
But the Guardians have the right guy in charge, and they need to keep him for the long haul.
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