Former World Series champion manager Ozzie Guillen wants to manage in MLB once again after four years away from the game. Guillen may have not had the most ceremonial endings when he managed his two previous teams, but is this the right time for him to return?
When Ozzie Guillen was fired in October 2012 from being the manager of the Miami Marlins for comments “praising” Fidel Castro, it took Miami six months to make the decision, and it didn’t help that his team was last place in the NL East with just 69 wins that season.
Four years after being let go by the Marlins, and 11 years since he was a World Series champion manager of the Chicago White Sox, helping the White Sox break what was then an 88-year drought of no championships on the South Side, he believes it is time to get back into the dugout and lead another MLB franchise.
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He’s right. After four seasons, there has to be a franchise in desperate need of the spark Guillen brings to baseball teams, but maybe this time around he can possibly scale back his non-baseball comments to a lower level instead of being 100-percent all day, every day.
Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com wrote this of Guillen in a recent article:
"“During two recent interviews, Guillen alternated between defiant and contrite. Yes, he has learned from his transgressions, but he isn’t about to grovel for an opportunity or peddle a sanitized version of himself for public consumption. He insists his resume speaks for itself.”"
Now about that resumé… he not only led the White Sox to a World Series championship in 2005, but he also managed them to the postseason with an AL Central championship in 2008, which was the last time Chicago has been in the playoffs.
Guillen managed the White Sox from 2004-11 and in those eight seasons had a winning percentage of .524 with 678 wins and 617 losses. In those eight years, five times his teams finished with an overall record of over .500, including the wire-to-wire first-place team that won the championship that had a regular-season record of 99-63, plus a postseason record of 11-1.
Listed are the year-by-year records of Guillen’s teams with the White Sox and Marlins:
• 2004: 83-79
• 2005: 99-63
• 2006: 90-72
• 2007: 72-90
• 2008: 89-74
• 2009: 79-83
• 2010: 88-74
• 2011: 78-82
• 2012: 69-93
Overall Record: 747-710 (1,295 games)
When he was at the helm of the White Sox, his teams never finished in last place in the AL Central, and they were either first or second place four times – half of his tenure – and in third place three times, including being named the AL Manager of the Year in ’05.
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Granted, his best days as a manager were over a decade ago, but a manager like Guillen is someone many teams could use, as he’ll stick up for his players in the media, but if he feels something isn’t to his liking, he’s gonna say that, too.
That can be considered a tough love of sorts.
So many managers get fired, then before we know it they are hired elsewhere. But Guillen is still waiting for his time to take over a ball club once again, and that time should be sooner rather than later.
Look at some of the folks who are currently managers in the major leagues. Many can’t say with a straight face some of them are better than Guillen, or Guillen couldn’t have success with some of the teams in the majors who are currently supporting overall losing records.
Who is to say why Guillen hasn’t been pursued by another MLB franchise since he was ousted by the Marlins in ’12, but the time is now for Guillen to become a manager once again in the majors.
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If the former White Sox and Marlins manager isn’t at the helm of an MLB franchise, if not at some point this season (highly unlikely), but by the start of the ’17 season, then it is just a shame for those teams who will be hiring managers in the offseason to look the other way, and even more a huge mistake by a team that wants to be a winner once again.