MLB Managers on the Hot Seat for 2nd Half of 2025 Season
There have already been four managerial changes in the 2025 Major League Baseball season—five if you want to count Ray Montgomery replacing Ron Washington, who is on medical leave and won't be returning to the Angels—but there are still quite a few spots where the hot seat could be smoldering if things start/continue to go poorly in the coming weeks and months.
For the sake of argument, managers who could get canned tomorrow and those who might survive the season but seem unlikely to be back in 2026 are both considered here.
There's a distinct difference between those two categories, so we'll give both an "Immediate Peril" and an "Offseason Jeopardy" rating for each of the managers on the list.
Though there have been instances in MLB history where a team made multiple managerial changes within a single season, teams that have already made a change were not considered for this list.
That doesn't necessarily mean we expect to see Baltimore's Tony Mansolino, Colorado's Warren Schaeffer, Pittsburgh's Don Kelly or Washington's Miguel Cairo still manning that role on Opening Day. We're just choosing not to further kick those teams while they're down.
Managers are presented in alphabetical order by last name.
Rocco Baldelli, Minnesota Twins
1 of 7
2025 Record: 48-51
Current Tenure: 505-464
Immediate Peril: 2.0 out of 10
Offseason Jeopardy: 7.5 out of 10
Contract Status: Signed through 2026
Initially, the Rocco Baldelli hiring looked like a mammoth home run for the Twins. After eight consecutive years finishing at least 12 games back in the AL Central, they won the division in his first two seasons and won the most games among all American League squads during that stretch.
Since the beginning of 2021, though, it's been a much different story, with a record 11 games below .500 over the past four-plus seasons.
Baldelli did oversee the 2023 team that mercifully snapped what had been an 18-game losing streak in the postseason that spanned nearly two decades. Even that team would have missed the playoffs, though, had it not been a historically futile year for the AL Central, with the Twins only managing the seventh-best record in the American League.
Barring a slightly miraculous finish here, that's going to be his only postseason appearance during a five-year stretch. And to miss the mark in what might end up being the most productive season of Byron Buxton's career would feel a little extra unforgivable.
While Buxton is having a career-best year, though, both Carlos Correa and Royce Lewis are putting up career-worst numbers. Baldelli should probably be credited for his bullpen usage as opposed to being thrown under the bus for the poor play of what are supposed to be the star infielders, but such is life as an MLB manager.
The Twins reportedly exercised their option to bring Baldelli back in 2026, but that may have happened during their 13-game winning streak in May as opposed to during what has been an AL-worst 14-24 record since early June. Either way, it merely means they'd need to pay a bit more to give him a pink slip.
Aaron Boone, New York Yankees
2 of 7
2025 Record: 55-44
Current Tenure: 658-473
Immediate Peril: 1.5 out of 10
Offseason Jeopardy: 7.0 out of 10
Contract Status: Signed through 2027
On the one hand, the Yankees gave Aaron Boone an extension in February, reportedly a three-year deal in which he's making $4.5 million this season, $5 million in 2026 and $5.5 million in 2027. As far as MLB managers go, he's about as well-compensated as it gets.
On the other hand, do you really think the Yankees—a franchise Forbes valued this past spring at $8.2 billion—would lose any sleep over setting $10.5 million ablaze by firing Boone if they fail to make the playoffs for what would be the second time in three years?
Things started out promising enough. Through 67 games, they had the third-best record in baseball (42-25) and a somewhat comfortable, 4.5-game lead in the AL East.
As has been the Yankee Way under Boone in recent seasons, though, the worm has turned.
2022: 61-23 start, 38-40 finish
2023: 48-38 start, 34-42 finish
2024: 49-21 start, 45-47 finish
2025: 42-25 start, 11-19 in next 30 games
If it was just this season, we could chalk it up to Aaron Judge cooling off (.392 AVG, 1.264 OPS through 67 games; .264 AVG, 1.009 OPS over next 30), Anthony Volpe slumping miserably (.450 OPS from June 13 through the All-Star break) and a starting rotation that went from passable to problematic with the loss of Clarke Schmidt.
At this point, though, this is just life in the Bronx under Boone.
Whatever midseason adjustments he has been making, they sure aren't working. Probably time for an offseason adjustment to address that.
Alex Cora, Boston Red Sox
3 of 7
2025 Record: 54-47
Current Tenure: 575-498
Immediate Peril: 0.5 out of 10
Offseason Jeopardy: 5.5 out of 10
Contract Status: Signed through 2027
Admittedly strange timing for this one, as the Red Sox stormed back into the postseason conversation with a 10-game winning streak heading into the All-Star break. That's why Alex Cora's "Immediate Peril" rating is virtually nonexistent.
But as has been the case with Aaron Boone and the Yankees, we've seen this Red Sox story enough times in recent seasons to assume another collapse could be imminent.
A 45-35 start in 2022 gave way to a 33-49 finish. The following season, they were nine games above .500 just before the trade deadline, but a staggering 15 games below .500 from that point forward. And last season's meltdown saw a 53-43 record at the All-Star break undone by a 28-38 record in the second half.
Things went south at slightly different points in each season, but that's cumulatively a 154-125 start followed by an 83-124 finish. And with a schedule that has them opening the second half with eight consecutive series against teams that might be buying at the trade deadline, another stinker could be on the horizon.
Goodness knows it has already been a dysfunctional year in Boston, too. Most of the blame was thrust upon Rafael Devers before the team sent him packing, but isn't a big chunk of a manager's job to manage big egos and keep clubhouse disgruntlements from becoming headline news?
Boston won it all in Cora's first season (2018), but that's going to feel like ancient history if yet another second-half slump results in the Red Sox missing the postseason for the fourth consecutive year for the first time since the early 1980s.
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Mark Kotsay, Athletics
4 of 7
2025 Record: 42-59
Current Tenure: 221-366
Immediate Peril: 0.5 out of 10
Offseason Jeopardy: 4.0 out of 10
Contract Status: Signed through 2028
Mark Kotsay inherited an impossible situation.
Not only was he named the A's manager in the middle of the 2021-22 MLB lockout, but the A's also decided to burn it all down as soon as said lockout ended, unloading Matt Olson, Matt Chapman, Chris Bassitt and Sean Manaea before Kotsay coached a single game.
Basically, it became his job to answer questions about when the team plans on becoming relevant again. And then on top of overseeing a rebuilding team, it also became his job to lead them through a relocation.
Not exactly the silver platter Aaron Boone was handed as a first-time manager with the Yankees, right?
After two-and-a-half seasons of understandable turmoil, though, the A's turned a serious corner last season, going 39-37 from July 1 onward. And then they did some spending this past offseason, signing Luis Severino and Jose Leclerc, trading for Jeffrey Springs, extending Brent Rooker and Lawrence Butler and turning that into a respectable 20-16 start.
Believe it or not, from July 1 of last year through May 5 of this year, the A's went 59-53; the only American League teams with more wins were Detroit (70), Houston (63) and, just barely, Cleveland (60).
Since those first 36 games, though, the A's have had the second-worst record in baseball.
Is it his fault seemingly no one on the roster can pitch? Or that they're struggling in a minor league stadium? Not really. And the fact that the organization signed Kotsay to a three-year extension (through 2028) this past February makes it almost impossible to imagine it would fire him before finding out what sort of draft lottery odds he can lead it to.
Still, it wouldn't be completely shocking if the A's made a change this winter, given how disappointing the past few months have been.
Torey Lovullo, Arizona Diamondbacks
5 of 7
2025 Record: 50-50
Current Tenure: 634-660
Immediate Peril: 3.0 out of 10
Offseason Jeopardy: 5.0 out of 10
Contract Status: Signed through 2026
It's not particularly likely the Diamondbacks will fire Torey Lovullo within the next two months. But if you could tell us there will be one more team this season that cuts ties with its manager in hopes of sparking something, Arizona would be at or near the top of the list of candidates.
Lovullo steered the Snakes to the World Series two years ago, but how much grace does a "first runner-up" season buy a manager, given they barely snuck into the playoffs in the first place with 84 wins?
After all, he was also at the helm for what was a major, postseason-missing collapse over the final six weeks of last season. And now this year's team has squandered what were high preseason expectations after it went out and acquired (among others) Corbin Burnes and Josh Naylor this past winter.
Arizona has one of the most prolific offenses, averaging better than five runs per game. As was the case last year, though, the pitching has not held up its end of the bargain. In particular, the bullpen (aside from Shelby Miller) has been disastrous, with a cumulative ERA of nearly 5.00.
While it's hardly Lovullo's fault Burnes blew out his elbow after just 11 appearances or Zac Gallen is struggling through a most forgettable contract year, it does seem like every string he tries to pull when it comes to the bullpen is the wrong one, resulting in an 11-19 record in one-run games and a possible trade deadline fire sale.
Oli Marmol, St. Louis Cardinals
6 of 7
2025 Record: 51-49
Current Tenure: 298-288
Immediate Peril: 1.5 out of 10
Offseason Jeopardy: 8.0 out of 10
Contract Status: Signed through 2026
Heading into the season, Oli Marmol seemed to be one of the biggest lame-duck managers of them all.
St. Louis had missed the postseason in each of the previous two years, including a .438 winning percentage in 2023 that ranks fourth-worst in the past century of Cardinals baseball.
In advance of Chaim Bloom taking over for John Mozeliak as president of baseball operations once this season ends, the Cardinals spent much of the offseason talking about (but never actually doing anything about) rebuilding for the future. And, well, the team was supposed to stink this season.
Credit to Marmol on keeping the latter from coming true, although a 4-11 record dating back to June 30 has perhaps sealed St. Louis' fate as a seller at the trade deadline.
And if it's a total rebuild—i.e. at least one of Sonny Gray, Nolan Arenado and Willson Contreras on the move in the next few days—it's hard to imagine the new president is going to want the old manager basically starting over from scratch with next year's roster.
Even if they don't sell at the deadline, they probably need to at least make the postseason to have any hope of salvaging Marmol's job, and that's looking less likely by the day.
It was after a sweep of Arizona in late May that it started to feel like the Cardinals might actually be a contender. Fittingly, getting swept by the Diamondbacks to open the second half felt a bit like the final nail in their coffin.
Brian Snitker, Atlanta Braves
7 of 7
2025 Record: 43-55
Current Tenure: 778-637
Immediate Peril: 1.0 out of 10
Offseason Jeopardy: 9.5 out of 10
Contract Status: Signed through 2025
If the Braves were going to relieve Brian Snitker of his managerial duties in hopes of salvaging this season, it almost certainly would have happened already—probably right around June 8 when they first fell to 10 games below .500 after losing six consecutive series.
At this point, though, they're too far gone, needing to leapfrog six teams and make up 10.5 games just to get back to the third wild card. They might as well just ride out the storm with the man who guided them to the postseason in each of the past seven years, putting together the third-best record in the majors (604-427) in the process.
Because of that consistent recent success, Snit would normally be afforded a "mulligan" year—even though going from the second-best preseason World Series odds to possibly the third-best odds of winning the draft lottery is a pretty serious mulligan.
At 69, though, he's already the oldest manager in the National League by a several-year margin and was likely to retire at the end of this season, which is the last one in his current contract.
So, while it likely won't truly be a termination situation, it's a near-certainty that Snitker won't be back in 2026, with speculations of Walt Weiss and Skip Schumaker as likely replacements already swirling.
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