Brewers Manager Retrospective: Ned Yost

The 2002 season was an unmitigated disaster for the Brewers, who finished 56-106, the worst record in franchise history. After that season, general manager Doug Melvin began searching for a new manager. According to the Associated Press coverage of his hiring, Ned Yost wasn’t even in the picture when Melvin began his search.

But Yost was extremely eager to manage the Brewers. Ken Macha, the team’s first choice, ended up staying with Oakland for 2003. Yost ended up beating out Bob Melvin, one-time teammate Cecil Cooper, and former Brewer Willie Randolph for the job.

In 2003, Yost oversaw a 12-game improvement from the 2002 nadir, even though the team arguably saw a downgrade at shortstop due to the departure of Jose Hernandez via free agency. The next season, despite the trade of Richie Sexson, the team hung in there. In his third year, the Brewers reached .500 for the first time since 1992.

Despite a step back in 2006, Yost finally saw the team go above .500 in 2007, with the core of the 2008 and 2011 playoff teams (Ryan Braun, Rickie Weeks, and Prince Fielder) almost fully in place. Indeed, Yost was managing the best left fielder, second baseman, and first baseman in the team’s history, as well as the second-best shortstop, during those years–although those years saw Ben Sheets and Yovani Gallardo miss significant time with injuries. Yost would be fired with 12 games to go in the 2008 season, with Dale Sveum taking over.

Perhaps one of his biggest calls was during 2005, when Rickie Weeks and JJ Hardy were struggling. According to a 2019 tweet by Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, Yost told then-GM Doug Melvin to keep them up, being willing to take the hit on his managerial record. That move worked out quite well down the road.

Overall, Yost’s Brewers finished one game over their Pythagorean record (counting the 12 games Dale Sveum handled as interim manager). He was often criticized by the team’s fans for the calls he made within games. His overall record of 457-502 as Brewers manager doesn’t seen impressive, but in things that didn’t show up in the box score, Yost made a big difference.

However, Yost’s impact arguably goes beyond a won-lost record. In a very real sense, even as the team was struggling in 2003 and 2004, he brought about a change in mindset following the doldrums of the Davey Lopes/Jerry Royster years that was crucial to the Brewers becoming the (largely) successful team they have been since Mark Attanasio purchased the Crew in 2005.

Yost went on to manage for Kansas City from 2010-2019, where he would reach the World Series in 2014 and 2015, winning it all in the latter year. Yost, though, would impact the Brewers during that 2015 season, according to the Athletic, giving the Crew’s new manager, Craig Counsell, advice that arguably helped make Counsell the team’s best manager in history.

When it comes down to it, Ned Yost ranks with Tom Trebelhorn as one of the most underappreciated managers in Brewers history.