Chicago (Cubs) at Toronto, August 12-14

Tuesday, August 12 2025 @ 11:45 AM EDT

Contributed by: Magpie

The Cubs return to Toronto, almost two years to the day since their last visit. 

The teams have played 24 times since their first meeting back in 2003, and they've split those 24 games right down the middle. The Jays have gone 9-6 at home, and 3-6 at Wrigley Field.

The Cubs are managed by Craig Counsell, now in his second year in the Chicago dugout after almost nine years managing the Brewers - you know, the team the Cubs keep falling further and further behind in the NL Central, although that's mostly a matter of the Brewers being en fuego these days. He hasn't had much post-season success. The 2018 Brewers swept the Rockies in the NLDS and took the Dodgers to seven games in the NLCS, but otherwise they were able to win just one post-season game during Counsell's tenure. He is still regarded, and probably rightly, as one of the game's better managers - but that's not what I want to talk about. 

Of all the game's current managers, Counsell has a pretty good case to being the best player of them all. There was a time when Hall of Fame caliber players were more or less eager to become managers. It was one of the great frustrations of Babe Ruth's life that they never let him manage the Yankees (the Babe could barely manage himself, of course) - but great players from Ty Cobb and Walter Johnson to Pete Rose and Frank Robinson have taken their turn in the big chair. But Paul Molitor's probably the only one in the last twenty years. And now that Dusty Baker (and before him, Joe Torre) have well and truly retired, none of today's managers would even qualify for the Hall of Very Good.

Counsell and Mark Kotsay of the A's are pretty clearly the best of a decidedly mediocre bunch. Counsell played 1624 games over 16 seasons, the best of which came in 2005 for the Diamondbacks. They give him 5.5 WAR that year, which is the best single season of any of our current managers. This was for a season in which he hit .256/.350/.375, OPS+ of 89, so someone must have really liked his defense. Kotsay played 1914 games over 17 seasons. It's the most MLB games by any of our current managers. Kotsay also had the most hits (1784) and HRs (127.) Miguel Cairo also appeared in 17 seasons

Aaron Boone, one famous home run notwithstanding, had the shortest and least distinguished playing career of the three generations of Boones to have played in the managers. Still, Boone is one of just two current managers to have been named to an All Star team. And even Yankees fans must acknowledge that he's been a far more successful manager than his father. Dan Wilson of Seattle is the only other manager who was an all-star as a player. Wilson spent some eleven years as Seattle's main catcher and he was one of five Mariners named to the 1996 team.

We can rank them by WAR - this, after all, is precisely the kind of thing that WAR is good for (which doesn't mean I won't find something to complain about!

Craig Counsell, Cubs -  22.4 
Mark Kotsay, A's        21.4  
Aaron Boone, Yankees    13.6 
Dan Wilson, Mariners    13.0 
Will Venable, White Sox 12.9

Rocco Baldelli, Twins   10.2
Dave Roberts, Dodgers    9.1
Miguel Cairo, Nationals  7.7
Alex Cora, Red Sox       7.0
Stephen Vogt, Guardians  6.8

Bob Melvin, Giants       2.5
Bruce Bochy, Rangers     2.3
A.J. Hinch, Tigers       0.0

There was a time when you would never be able to get away with hiring a manager who never played in the majors. Those days are well and truly gone, of course. There are thirteen current managers who never played in the majors, and consequently have 0 WAR. One of them, Mike Shildt, never even played professional baseball. I hope I'm not supposed to regard any of these fellows as being better players than the last four fromer major-league players, who each score Less than Zero. Because that would be really stupid. Why, it's almost as stupid as the notion that someone who was actually good enough to play major league baseball has negative value. That's an insult to the players, and an affront to common sense.

Dan Kelly, Pirates      -0.2
Torey Lovullo, D'backs  -0.9
Terry Francona, Reds    -3.0 
Kevin Cash, Rays        -3.1

The current crop of managers do cover every position on the diamond, which is actually somewhat unusual. Most of them are former catchers, of course, and most of them were backups. Of the 11 former catchers, only Wilson was a long time major league regular (Vogt had a couple of seasons playing that much in Oakland.) Bochy, Melvin, Cash, and Hinch were career backups; Schneider, Thomson, McCullough, Snitker and Quatraro never made it to the majors. Terry Francona, a lefty batter with no power whatsoever, is the only first baseman. Torey Lovullo, like Counsell and Cairo, was mostly a second baseman.  Boone was a third baseman, as was Tony Mansolino of the Orioles. Alex Cora was mostly a shortstop, as were another four men who never played in the majors: Mendoza of the Mets, Espada of the Astros, Marmol of the Cardinals, and Schaeffer of the Rockies. Dan Kelly of the Pirates was mostly a left fielder, which is fun. After all, left fielders don't normally become managers (they're too busy thinking about their next time at bat.) Kotsay was a centre fielder, as were Dave Roberts and Rocco Baldelli. Will Venable played more right field than anywhere else, as did Ray Montgomery (running the Angels in Ron Washington's absence) in his minor league career. And Pat Murphy of the Brewers was a pitcher in the minors. 

Counsell's Cubs are a very good team, of course, and one assumes that they're all-in 2025, having paid a goodly price for what could turn out to be just one year of Kyle Ticker. Alas for them, they happen to be in the same division as the team with the best record in baseball, who at  this moment are the hottest team in baseball. Two weeks ago, the Cubs were tied for first place. Today they're six games back of the Brewers, and contemplating a Wild Card showdown with... the Dodgers? The Mets? The Cubs score tons of runs, led by Tucker, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Seiya Suzuki, and Michael Busch. But their pitchers don't impress overmuch - Matthew Boyd, at age 34, is having a career year, which is especially impressive when you remember how it all started for him. But he's never before had a season even close to what he's done for the 2025 Cubs. Cade Horton, their first round pick in 2022, is having a very impressive rookie season and Shota Imanaga has been just as good. But there's not a whole lot else and the bullpen looks a little thin.

Matchups

Tue 12 Aug - Brown (5-7, 6.04) vs Berrios (8-4, 3.89)
Wed 13 Aug - Horton (6-1, 3.18) vs Gausman (8-8, 3.85)
Thu 14 Aug - Boyd (11-5, 2.45) vs Scherzer (2-2, 4.21)


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