Rookie manager Mike Daly ready to "grind" with TinCaps
Jonathan Mathews had not managed a professional ballclub in nearly a quarter-century when he was named Fort Wayne skipper prior to last season. Mike Daly, the new manager of the Fort Wayne TinCaps baseball team, has been chosen over Jonathan Mathews, who had not managed a professional team in nearly a quarter-century. Daly, who has never had a managerial or coaching job in the pro ranks, is eager to provide the same steady hand as Mathews. Daly is set to make his official managerial debut against the Great Lakes Loons in Midland, Michigan. He will lead a team featuring four of the team's top 30 prospects. Daly credits his knowledge of the game and experience in helping players reach their potential.
Publié : il y a 4 semaines par Dylan Sinn | The Journal Gazette dans Sports
Jonathan Mathews had not managed a professional ballclub in nearly a quarter-century when he was named Fort Wayne skipper prior to last season.
All Mathews did in his first campaign back in the big chair was lead the team to its first playoff appearance since 2017 and first above-.500 finish since 2015.
Now, with Mathews serving as one of the Padres’ minor-league hitting coordinators, San Diego is trying to strike gold again with another novice manager. This year’s choice to lead the club’s High-A farm team in Fort Wayne, Mike Daly, has even less experience than Mathews did – he’s never had a managerial or coaching job in the pro ranks – but he’s looking to provide the same steady hand as his predecessor.
“The biggest thing is to create an environment that allows the players to be the best versions of themselves,” Daly said as he prepared for his official managerial debut tonight against the Great Lakes Loons in Midland, Michigan.
“Managers clearly benefit from having very, very good players and we have a number of good players in our clubhouse here that will be able to show everybody what they’re capable of doing.”
What Daly might lack in experience in dugout roles, he makes up for in knowledge of the game and experience in helping players reach their potential. An Atlanta native who went to high school in Cincinnati, Daly walked on to the baseball team at LSU and there won a pair of national championships in 1997 and 2000.
After college, he worked as a scout in the Midwest for the Cleveland ballclub – he remembers scouting in the Summit City two decades ago when the then-Fort Wayne Wizards played at Memorial Stadium, and marveled at Parkview Field. He later joined the Texas Rangers, where he worked his way up to assistant general manager.
Since October 2021, he’s been the Padres’ assistant director of player development, helping to construct a farm system that this year put two players – Jackson Merrill and Graham Pauley – on San Diego’s Opening Day roster less than nine months removed from them playing in Fort Wayne.
In other words, Daly has a wealth of baseball wisdom – but managing is a dramatically different undertaking.
“There’s certainly going to be some things I’m going to miss from the (front-office) role, but there’s a definite excitement to be able to roll up the sleeves, work with the players, grind with the players day-in and day-out and really get to be with our staff every single day,” Daly said.
Daly is the TinCaps’ fourth manager in four seasons, following franchise all-time wins leader Anthony Contreras (2021), Brian Esposito (2022) and Mathews last year. The new skipper has technically managed Fort Wayne before – he spelled Esposito for six games and lost all six.
“We don’t like to talk about that; that was a rough week,” Daly said. “But I learned a lot.”
He plans to learn much more this season. He knows what he doesn’t know and plans to pick the brains of bench coach Jhonaldo Pozo, hitting coach Jed Morris and pitching coach Thomas Eshelman, among many others.
“Actually going through the grind day-in and day-out, that’s the biggest area that I’m just not really sure about,” he said. “I think that I know. Some of the in-game aspects – when to play the infield in, when to play the infield back, first-and-third defense, some of those in-game adjustments that you make.
“But I’m very lucky because I’m going to be leaning on our staff a lot to help me through that, to be able to ask a bunch of questions.”
Daly will lead a talented team featuring four of the Padres’ top 30 prospects – catcher Ethan Salas, right-handed pitcher Dylan Lesko, lefty Jagger Haynes and outfielder Homer Bush Jr. – and a slew of players who helped the TinCaps make the playoffs last year.
The early returns on Daly have been positive. The players like his energy, his attention to detail and his relentless belief in them.
“He’s just fresh-squeezed juice, all the time,” Bush said. “It’s just straight positivity; it’s awesome to be around.”
Added infielder Nik McClaughry: “Sometimes this game is very negative. If there’s someone else that’s that positive, that’s in your corner, it’s really nice.”
That upbeat attitude with the players is a staple for Daly whether he’s roaming the farm system as an executive or donning a uniform and working from the top step of the dugout.
“What you’re really just trying to do,” he says, “is help them along their journey.”