Lack of Latino managers highlights MLB's ongoing diversity issues; NJ.com, 7/3/16

Maria Guardado, NJ.com; Lack of Latino managers highlights MLB's ongoing diversity issues:

"A study by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport showed that 28.5 percent of all MLB players on 2016 Opening Day rosters were Latino, yet that sizable contingent no longer has any representation among the league's managerial pool.

There are currently only two minority managers in baseball: the Washington Nationals' Dusty Baker and the Los Angeles Dodgers' Dave Roberts, both of whom are African-American.

"I think the focus on field managers can be difficult," MLB commissioner Rob Manfred told NJ Advance Media in June. "There's only 30 of them, so it's a small sample and it's a high turnover job. A couple of changes and all of a sudden your picture looks different. I'm hopeful that during the next round during the offseason when there's changes, that we'll add diversity in those ranks."

Still, the number of managers of color in MLB has actually been on the decline in recent years, as the 2016 season opened with three minority managers, down from the highpoint of 10 in both 2002 and 2009.

It's a troubling trend for MLB, particularly because Latinos have represented at least 20 percent of the player pool since 1996, according to research by baseball historians Mark Armour and Dan Leavitt. And yet, of the 697 men who have ever served as major league managers, only 15 have been Latino."