A Minor League manager is a jack-of-all-trades
When you think that a manager’s job in the Minor Leagues is about managing a team, creating a lineup and doing some infield drills, you’re way off line. A manager in the minors is doing a lot more.
In general a Minor League manager starts his work day around 11.00 AM (when a game starts at 7.05 PM). It starts with creating a lineup first, so that there is enough time to make adaptions when necessary. But next to that there is a lot more that a manager needs to do.
As I wrote before, Minor League baseball is not about winning. Each Minor League club is depending on which players are sent by the parent club. For the Minor League club itself it is about attracting as many fans as possible with weird promotions, good food, between inning games and other entertainment. For a Minor League manager it is also not about winning. The Minor Leagues are a kind of school, meant for players to get better. Of course when a team is in a pennant race, a manager wants to win but still then the most important thing is to improve players. If that means that a pitcher cannot complete a game because of a pitch count, so be it. So the manager needs to make a player better.
To achieve this, he has to create an atmosphere in which the players feel like home. So the next thing a manager does, after making a lineup, is to check if the playlists to make sure that the music of the players’ likings is played. And making players feeling like home is very important. The life at the Minor Leagues is not as luxurious as in the Majors. Just motels to sleep in, bus travel on a road trip, living in very cheap appartments that are shared with team mates most of the time, so the privacy is limited.
A chat with the groundscrew is next, to make sure that the playing surface is in mint condition.
As soon as the team arrives at the stadium, the manager needs to show around with the defensive group work for the catchers, the infielders and the outfielders. This takes about 30 minutes for each group. Those sessions are followd by the stretching and batting practice. During the batting practice of the opponent there is time to have a little bite.
When the game starts at 7.05 PM, the manager will be coaching at third base during the at bats of his team, there is no separate third base coach. When the game is over it is time to write a report about the game. The report will contain facts about the own players but also about a standout performance of players of the opponent. A report like that will take the manager 40-45 minutes to create. By the time the manager will leave the ballpark, it is way past midnight most of the time.
On the personal note, a manager wants to move up in the organization as well. If you do a good job, you will be rewarded with a promotion. Take Charly Montoyo for example. Montoyo guided the 2006 Montgomery Biscuits to a Southern League championship. The Tampa Bay Rays promoted him to Durham (AAA) the next year, to become the Bulls’ manager. Before hejoined the Biscuits in 2004 he managed the Orlando Rays (who became the Biscuits in 2004), the Bakersfield Blaze (2001-2002), the Charleston RiverDogs (1999-2000) and the Huidson Valley Renegades (1997-1998). Eventually Montoyo was named third base coach for the Tampa Bay Rays in the 2014-2015 off season.
If you are doing a good as a manager, you can climb the ladder in the organization. But it is far from an easy job to achieve that goal. In fact, as a Minor League manager you are a jack-of-all-trades.