MLB Managers Starting the 2025 Season on the Hot Seat

The odds aren’t out yet for the first MLB manager to be fired in 2025, but there are four guys who will likely top the list. The Japan Series is here and gone and teams will finish up their spring training schedules. The rest of MLB will get underway on Thursday, March 27. This handful of managers will need a strong start in 2025 to alleviate some of the heat coming from their seats. All four could experience success and return in 2026. At the same time, all four could be unemployed before the regular season ends. 

Here are four MLB managers starting the new season firmly on the hot seat.

Bud Black, Colorado Rockies

That Black is still managing any team in the majors is almost a miracle. Think about it. Black has been the manager of an MLB team in 17 of the last 18 seasons. His teams are a combined 1,186-1,370. That’s a winning percentage of just 46 percent. 

Black has been with the Rockies since 2017. He took Colorado to the postseason in each of his first two seasons. Since then, the Rockies finished fourth or fifth in the NL West. They have been the last place team (fifth) in the division in each of the last three seasons. The Rockies haven’t won more than 68 games since 2021 and haven’t had a winning season since 2018.

The roster didn’t get all that much better from last year. DH Kris Bryant is a shell of his former MVP self. Kyle Freeland and German Marquez are two solid pitchers, but they pitch all their home games in the most hitter-friendly ballpark in the majors. 

The Rockies just can’t compete with the likes of the Dodgers, Padres, and Diamondbacks in the NL West. At some point, the Rockies have to tire of the losing and make a change. The big question is when.

John Schneider, Toronto Blue Jays

The 2025 season is make or break for Schneider. He took over as the interim manager during the 2022 after the Blue Jays fired Charlie Montoyo. Schneider and the Blue Jays finished the season 46-28, good enough to earn a wild card berth in the AL playoffs. Toronto would lose to Seattle. 

The next season, 2023, Scheider guided Toronto to an 89-73 record, good for third place in the AL East and another AL wild card. Once again, the Blue Jays were gone after the wild card round, losing to Minnesota. 

Last season, Toronto took a step backwards, finished 74-88, and wound up dead last in the AL East. For a team that can smack the ball like Toronto, that just isn’t good enough. This is a lineup that features Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, George Springer, and DH Anthony Santander. Combine that with a pitching staff that added Max Scherzer to Kevin Gausman, Jose Berrios, Chris Bassitt, and a young emerging star in Bowden Francis. 

Unfortunately, the Jays play in a loaded AL East, but Schneider’s winning percentage now sits at 52.5 percent. The guy he replaced, Montoyo, was fired with a winning percentage of 52.3 percent. Scheider will find out how hot his seat gets right away. Toronto hosts Baltimore for a four-game series to start the 2025 season.

Oliver Marmol, St. Louis Cardinals

The Cardinals last won a World Series in 2011. In the 14 seasons since, St. Louis has only missed the playoffs five times. Two of those came in the last two seasons. Marmol was the manager in each. He took the Cardinals to the postseason in his first as manager. St. Louis won the NL Central and then lost to Philadelphia in the 2022 NL wild card series. 

Now, the Cardinals did finish 83-79 last season, good enough for second place in the NL Central. It was not good enough, though, for a playoff berth. That made it two straight seasons with no postseason. This is the penultimate season of Marmol’s contract and the organization does have a new guy – Chaim Bloom – as director of baseball operations. Bloom did not hire Marmol. If Marmol doesn’t get it done in 2025, that could precipitate a change.

The Cards will still have Nolan Arenado and Willson Contreras as well as a pitching staff that still has Sonny Gray, Erick Fedde, and Miles Mikolas. What St. Louis won’t have is former NL MVP Paul Goldschmidt, who hit .254 with 22 homers and 65 RBIs last season.

Ron Washington, Los Angeles Angels

Washington is 72 years old and wasn’t supposed to be a long-term solution for the Angels. This is the second and final season of his contract with the team and it’s likely that it either ends early or he doesn’t return in 2026.

The biggest shame in all of professional sports is that the likely best MLB player ever, Mike Trout, has played in one playoff series since his rookie year with the Angels in 2012. Yes, Trout has been oft-injured and the Angels as a team have suffered through a ridiculous amount of injuries. 

Los Angeles does have a solid lineup with Trout, OF Taylor Ward, and DH Jorge Soler. Yusei Kikuchi leads the pitching rotation along with Tyler Anderson and Jose Soriano. Kenley Jansen is the team’s closer, so the pieces are there. However, if history is any indication, the Angels aren’t likely to have a winning season. They haven’t had one since 2015, and they didn’t make the postseason that year either. 

If the season turns into a disaster like last year, Washington will be out the door early. If the Angels hang around and win 70 or 80 games, they’ll wait until the season’s end.