Last September, former Guardians manager Terry Francona announced that he would be stepping down at the season’s end, meaning that for the first time since 2012, the organization would be searching for a new manager. In November, Stephen Vogt was hired as the 45th manager in the franchise’s history. He’s now in the thick of his first season on the job. We caught up with him at the start of the 2024 season in April to learn more about how he is adjusting to his new role.
Cleveland Magazine: How have your first couple of months as manager of the Cleveland Guardians gone?
Stephen Vogt: It’s been awesome, busy. It’s new. Everything’s new. But I’ve really enjoyed it. I’m learning things every day. And I think that’s kind of how I’ve taken this approach: I’m trying to learn something new every day and I don’t have all the answers.
CM: Who do you lean on for advice as you’re navigating this for the first time?
SV: I have a lot of people in my life that I keep in touch with that helped me really get through this. You know, Tito [Francona] has been huge for me. I talked with him a number of times throughout the offseason and early in spring. Just asking him about Cleveland and about this team. The biggest thing I wanted to do is, I didn’t want to come in and have to change, because nothing needed to be changed. I wanted to pick up where they left off. And so Tito has been huge for me.
CM: What has Tito told you About working in Cleveland?
SV: He couldn’t speak higher about the fan base and about the people of Cleveland and how much they love the Guardians. He nonstop talked about how the city will get behind you. The city will support you. They will root for you. They want to win just as much as anybody else, if not more.
CM: What made you want to be a manager?
SV: I just love baseball. I think, for me, getting to play for a long time, I've loved baseball since I was four years old. And just kind of looking at my career and how I've gone about things with teammates, with coaches, with everything. I just think it was always a dream of mine to be a manager, to help everybody and be a part of something special.
CM: So as being one of the younger managers in baseball, and obviously, you know, not very far removed from being in the clubhouse as a player. What's relating to players like for you? You know, I think it's even super unique that you're now managing a guy that you were once upon a time teammates with in Oakland. What's that, like being so close in age to some of the guys in that locker room?
SV: I think it's pretty cool. I feel like I'm the same person I was as a teammate. It's just I have a different job now. I relate to guys, I still mix it up with them. I still talk to them as if we were teammates, obviously it's coming from a different place. Even with Ramon [Laureano] being that we were teammates a little over a year ago, it is a little a little weird, but, we've already had a number of conversations and it's one of those like, we just had to talk about. It's like, ‘hey, let's interact the same way we always have, you know, yeah, it's a different position, but I don't feel like I'm a different person.’ So I think it's, we're gonna have honest conversations, and we're gonna go about our business the way we always have.
CM: How do you describe your leadership style?
SV: I care about the players. Like I want every single one of them to be successful in everything they do. And however I can aid in that is going to be how I'm going to go about it. If they need a pump me up, if they need a truthful message, well, whatever it might be, they're gonna get it from me. I'm just gonna be myself. And I care about them and their career first. And if they go out and do what they're capable of, we're gonna win a lot of games. And so I think it's individualized to each person. And we're gonna go about it, and we're gonna play hard.
CM: What do you like to do away from the ballpark?
SV: I love playing golf. Any chance I get to go play golf, it’s just a way to turn off. It’s a great challenge for me. I’m not that good, but I just love being outside, being active. We like to ride bikes as a family. I like snowshoeing in the wintertime on Mount Rainier. I took up snow skiing when I finished playing. We love being outside. We love being active. My wife has two horses so we go out to the horse barn, clean up the pastures. Anything I can do outside, I love to.
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