Mets’ Terry Collins says blueprint to becoming an MLB manager has changed

Before the New York Mets hired him, Terry Collins had managed 11 seasons in the minor leagues and six in the majors. Before the Kansas City Royals hired him, Ned Yost had managed three seasons in the minors and six in the majors.

The Dodgers are looking for a manager, but not necessarily with the background of the World Series managers. The candidate perceived throughout baseball as the front-runner for the Dodgers job is Gabe Kapler, the team’s minor league director. He has one season of managing experience, in the Class-A South Atlantic League.

Scott Servais, who ran the Angels’ scouting and player development operations for the last four years, was hired Friday as manager of the Seattle Mariners — by his former boss in Anaheim, General Manager Jerry Dipoto.

Collins is 66, the oldest manager in the major leagues. He acknowledged that the path toward a major league managerial job has shifted, without telling anyone to get off his lawn.

“The game of baseball is different today,” Collins said. “That’s just the way it is. Guys are going into the front office. They are assistants to general managers, where the conversations are about the team every day, and general managers are hearing these guys are sharp.

“They have a great feel for perhaps talent, or perhaps how the game should be run, so they’re getting jobs, where years ago you had to go through the minor leagues.”

Collins, a former minor league director for the Dodgers and Mets, said the reach of the modern front office extends into daily decisions for each minor league team. Collins said he wanted to develop managers as well as players, so he tried to let his managers master strategies on their own.

“That’s not really done today,” Collins said. “Lineups are being written for them. This guy has to pitch today, at this amount. You can’t pinch-hit, because these guys have got to hit the whole game.

“They don’t manage any more.”

Etc.

Collins said there was no such thing as lucky uniforms any more, not with Major League Baseball selling game-worn uniforms nearly as soon as the game is over. “There were times when you didn’t wash your stuff,” he said. “Now it’s on EBay the next day.” … The Royals’ Ben Zobrist, whose wife is due to give birth Nov. 10, on what she told him about the possibility of delivering the baby while the team plays in New York: “You better hit a home run if I have the baby without you.” … Yost said he fell asleep at 4 a.m. Wednesday after the Game 1 marathon and awoke at 6:30 a.m. “There were 18 people coming over to the house for breakfast,” he said.