If it happens that Dusty Baker doesn’t get the open managerial job with the Washington Nationals – he and Bud Black appear to be the final two candidates – the 2016 season likely would be MLB’s first without a black manager since the 1984-87 seasons.
And that empty spot would come after Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred talked Monday in Kansas City about the sport needing to improve minority hiring.
As recently as 2014 there were three black managers but Houston let Bo Porter go after that season and Ron Washington quit the Reds in September of that year.