Bochy will retire at season's end. As he looks to enjoy his dwindling weeks on the bench, he's also grappling with a concern for the position that he's leaving. Bochy is worried about the compensation that managers are receiving in a changing baseball landscape, one that has tilted the sphere of influence to the front office.
Bochy and the Cubs' Joe Maddon are the highest-paid managers in baseball at about $6 million annually. As Bochy retires, Maddon is working in the final season of his contract with an uncertain future. The new wave of managers hired in recent seasons is receiving far less compensation, as many make between $800,000 and $1.5 million.
"Every organization is different," Bochy told 670 The Score. "I know Joe wants to manage, but I don't know his situation here. He does a great job and has quite the resume. There are some of us old ones around, but to the point, a lot of them are going younger in hiring managers. And as far as salaries, I started out at $175,000 in 1995. So the new guys starting at $800,000 isn't bad. I will say the managers should be paid comparable to other sports. You want to be treated as fairly as the college and professional coaches are being paid in football and basketball. Hopefully, they eventually will be."
Maddon expressed a similar concern.
"The one thing we do is manage more games than any coach in any sport," Maddon said. "(Other sports') days are absorbed in practice. They play half the games (in basketball that) we do. As a major league manager, you do end up being the face of the organization. You do that by doing (media sessions) two or three times a day. I want to believe that the abilities of a manager will be recognized moving forward. That means not just being able to handle desires (of the front office) based on analytical stuff. There is so much more to it than that."
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Recent developments -- or the lack thereof -- suggest Bochy and Maddon may be the last of the handsomely paid managers, at least for the near future. For example, former World-Series winning Yankees manager Joe Girardi hasn't landed a new job despite having interest in returning to the bench. He hasn't received a fair market offer after making $4 million in his final season managing the Yankees in 2017.
"You must be able to handle the personalities in the (clubhouse) and handle the room," Maddon said. "You must be able to handle things on the fly like in last night's game (a wild 12-11 win by the Cubs). Those decisions are independent of any kind of research. A lot of our game for managers is feeling. I want to believe that in the end, the feeling will be one person can make a difference."
Reliever Derek Holland, whom the Cubs acquired from the Giants in July, supported the desires of Bochy and Maddon.
"Clubs are going to see that if you want a good manager, it is going to cost you money," Holland said. "If you are not going to pay guys and you have losing seasons, you will eventually understand you need the best and most experienced guys who have won. You learn that each manager is different and has strengths and should be paid differently. We are not socialists. Successful guys like Bochy and Maddon who have been proved out should be paid more money."