Zack Britton praises Buck Showalter’s managing skills in post-retirement interview: “Always put me in a position to succeed”
After twelve seasons in MLB, pitcher Zack Britton has decided that the time to retire has come. On his way out, the veteran reliever wanted to recognize a certain manager who he believed impacted him in a positive way.
In a recent appearance on MLB Network Radio, Britton named former Baltimore Orioles manager Buck Showalter as being a source of his confidence as an MLB reliever. According to Britton, Showalter "always put (me) in a position to succeed.
"Newly retired @zbritton reflects on his relationship with former @Orioles Manager Buck Showalter and the 2016 AL Wild Card Game. #Orioles"
In the interview, Britton reflected on the 2016 AL Wild Card game, when his Baltimore Orioles were playing the Toronto Blue Jays. At the time, Zack Britton remarked that he wanted to get into the game. However, in retrospect, Britton conceded that he had "thrown a lot going into the series" and that Showalter, who managed the O's at the time, may have been right to hold off on using him.
In the end, Edwin Encarnacion won the game for the Jays on account of a home run in the eleventh inning off of Baltimore Orioles reliever Ubaldo Jimenez. In 2016, Britton was considered one of the best closers in the game, as he had put up a league-best 47 saves and pitched to a 0.54 across 67 innings that year.
"October 4, 2016: Blue Jays’ Edwin Encarnacion walks it off in B11 and Toronto beats the Orioles 5-2 in the AL Wild Card Game" - This Day in Sports Clips
As for Showalter, the veteran manager was fired after the O's put up a franchise-high 115 losses in 2018. In 2021, he was hired as the new manager of the New York Mets but was let go in 2023 after baseball's richest team finished with the eighth-worst record in the majors.
Zack Britton knew when it was time to call it quits
Although Britton was possibly the best closer of the mid-2010s, the California-born reliever saw his numbers fall off a cliff in subsequent years. After undergoing a series of medical treatments, including Tommy John Surgery, Britton was limited to just three appearances in 2022 for the New York Yankees, in which he posted a 13.50 ERA.
His best days are now behind him, but at least Zack Britton found hindsight and was able to see the method in Buck Showalter's 2016 Wild Card madness.