It seems like the changes in modern baseball have made the manager one of the most inconsequential people inside a MLB organization. Do these guys even have any discretion over in-game decisions anymore?
Yep I’ve heard that too, that “analytics” guys are making decisions, and call down to the dugout to tell the manager what to do.
In the past anyway, the manager made the decisions about when to pinch hit for someone, who the pinch hitter would be, when to change pitchers, and who the relief pitcher would be.
It’s got to be hard to be a manager nowadays, if a move results in losing the game, yet you are at the post game press conference having to explain why you brought in a certain relief pitcher at a certain time, etc. If it’s not your own decision, that’s got to be hard to defend.