Indians fire Manny Acta

Manny Acta (Photo: AP)

September 27, 2012

The Cleveland Indians today announced that manager Manny Acta will not return as manager. The decision is immediate and he will not manage the team the last six games of the season. Bench coach Sandy Alomar will serve as interim manager for the remainder of the season.

“The Cleveland Indians would like to thank Manny Acta for everything he has done for the organization in his three seasons as our manager,” said Cleveland Indians Executive Vice President and General Manager Chris Antonetti. “Manny’s passion for the game, positive attitude and tremendous knowledge of baseball helped guide us to a number of high points during his tenure. Managerial changes are never easy or taken lightly, but as we approached the end of the season and turned our attention to assessing the year, we determined a change was necessary.”

Acta compiled a record of 214-266 (.446) over his three seasons with the Indians after being named the 40^th Manager in franchise history on October 25, 2009. His .418 winning percentage as a manager over his six year career is the second worst in baseball history for those who have managed as many games as he has.

“I have great respect for Manny and appreciate the effort he exhibited not only leading our team, but also the contributions he made in our community over the past three years,” said Cleveland Indians Chairman/CEO Paul Dolan. “I fully support Chris’ decision to make this change and am confident that he will lead a tireless search to find the right individual to lead the club to our ultimate goal of winning the World Series.”

Alomar, 46, has been a member of the Cleveland Indians Major League coaching staff since 2010, and was promoted to bench coach in 2011. In addition to managing the final six games of the 2012 season, he will also be a candidate for the position during a search process that will begin immediately and will likely include candidates such as Terry Francona, Mike Sarbaugh and others. The rest of the coaching staff will remain intact through the end of the season.

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User Comments

Bric

September 28, 2012 - 12:41 AM EDT

Great manager, great attitude, great demeanor.
58 yrs. following the Indians, few outstanding managers in that time, and I get excited about this guy and they scapegoat him.
Sandy Alomar is a great choice, but how will this affect the Indians in the DR?

Dennis

September 27, 2012 - 9:33 PM EDT

Antonelli and Shapiro should have gotten fired first. They are responsible for putting this team together. John McGraw, Casey Stengely, (sp) or LaRussa could not have had a winning record with this bunch of players

Joe

September 27, 2012 - 8:18 PM EDT

Agree with most of the comments above. If he wasn't fired a month ago, he should have finished the year out. The arrogance of the front office is amazing. The players Antoinetti provided to Acta was bad. Am somewhat surprised Acta didn't try and opt out sooner. He had to know this team was not going to win. He was dealt a bad hand, and he was left on his own to play it out. Pretty heartless. That being said, Acta and his coaches were also a questionable lot. This team was not fundamentally strong, with questionable defence, bad base running,and many poor managerial decisions over the course of the year. I guess what I am saying is that Acta deserved to be fired, but pretty inhumane timing. Good luck Sandy, especially if you get a contract offer from Shapiro's puppet. Make sure you get as many years as you can, because you will need it.

art

September 27, 2012 - 8:17 PM EDT

Since he wasn't fired when going through the awful August collapse, he certainly shouldn't have been fired now so close to the end of the season.

They did win last night, right? They have been playing a bit better in September than August, right?

This team (front office and ownership) has had me puzzled for a few years now, this is just another odd move to me. But it is only part of a very long list of odd moves.

anonymous

September 27, 2012 - 7:24 PM EDT

Hopefully someone in the press gets a statement from Acta after (fingers crossed) Antonetti gets fired. Not that I think he will. Not that he doesn't deserve it.

shy

September 27, 2012 - 7:10 PM EDT

Why now everybody wants to know. Just a hunch, but I think it came down to a pissing contest between Antonetti and Acta. Acta probably told Dolan he didn't want to come back next year if Antonetti was G.M. because of Antonetti's ineptitude in finding and signing a balanced competitive team and his aloofness, arrogance, ego whatever you want to call it. Antonetti probably got wind of it and figured he'd make a pre-emptive strike. As far as Dolan goes, he doesn't know the difference between a Louisville Slugger and a Callaway . All he knows is that it's easier to find a manager than a G.M. because there's so many to choose from. There's probably fifty to a hundred legit manager candidates- guys that have been fired or will be, guys that took time off, guys that have worked their way up the minors, assistant coaches,etc. Dolan took the easy way out because he knows nothing.

Madthinker88

September 27, 2012 - 6:01 PM EDT

I wanted to see this move once the Columbus season ended. Once it didn't happen I figured Acta would make it through the season.
Can't put a finger on what happened in the last week to trigger this move now but I would be interested to learn.

Rob

September 27, 2012 - 5:59 PM EDT

Bad business as usual, no surprise. This should have been done ammonth ago. Acta of course would feel the need to use the veteran dead weight to try and protect his reputation for future opportunities. Bad spot for Sandy as well now. If he is not hired full time how can he return next year? MS and CA should be embarrassed, but when you think you are a genius these things don't bother you too much. Can't wait to find out all about the next"window." Let Operation Clueless part 3 begin.

Tony

September 27, 2012 - 5:27 PM EDT

Yeah, I don't understand it either and why it had to be done now. Why not wait until next Thursday the day after the season ends? If they really wanted to get a look at Alomar, why not make this change weeks ago? It is puzzling to say the least.

One thing here is that no serious manager candidate is going to come here given the limited support in payroll from ownership and the limited support in players provided by the front office. A manager is coming into a losing situation.

shy

September 27, 2012 - 4:52 PM EDT

I want to vomit. For 2 years Chris Antonetti put pigs ears on a plate and said "Here you go Manny, make me a silk purse" The fact that Antonetti was able to convince Paul and Larry Dolan that the collapse of the Indians was the result of poor field management rather than his pathetic ignorance and misdeeds as G.M. tells you the Dolans know nothing about baseball. And Shapiro is keeping his mouth shut and cashing his own checks for another year. If I were in the same room with Chris Antonetti today, only one of us would leave with intact kneecaps. I would be surprised if more than a few of the players don't feel the same way. The Indians are done for the foreseeable future, they are now a candidate for MLB intervention, have fun w Bud Selig. Best of luck to Manny in his future endeavors. I have no doubt whatsoever he will be working in the majors next year . I hope he gets to come back to the mistake on the lake and beat the pathetic crap out of the Indians

Norm

September 27, 2012 - 4:36 PM EDT

I was really curious as to why this happened now with 6 games left. Answers were not surprising but will be interested to see what you and your crack reporting staff find. i suspect that Acta's days as a manager are probably over but who knows in this day and age.

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