Current Cleveland Indians’ manager Manny Acta was born on January 11, 1969 in San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic. He was signed by the Houston Astros at the age of 17 as a first baseman. At the age of 20, he reached the Double-A level as a backup first baseman and outfielder. He wound up playing six seasons, all in the Astros’ Minor League system, but never made it to the Major Leagues as a player. After realizing that his physical talent would not allow him to make it to the Major League level, the Astros sent him to scouting school in Florida in order to take advantage of his analytical abilities.
In 1991, Acta was a player-coach at the A level, but soon gave up his playing career entirely to focus solely on coaching. He became a full-time manager of an A-level team in 1993, and remained a manager in the Minors through 2000. In 1999, Acta led the Kissimmee Cobras, the Astros’ High-A Florida State League affiliate, to the Florida State League championship.
Acta would be hired as the third base coach of the Montreal Expos under manager Frank Robinson in 2002 and would continue in this position through 2005 (the Expos became the Washington Nationals after the 2004 season after the franchise moved from Montreal to Washington D.C.). Acta would then interview for the managerial positions of both the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Los Angeles Dodgers, but lost out on both positions, instead taking the third base coaching position with the New York Mets under manager Willie Randolph and staying on through the 2006 season.
On November 14, 2006, Manny Acta was hired as manager of the Washington Nationals. He was hired primarily because he knew some of the young players from his days as third base coach of the Expos, as well as for his youth and for his enthusiasm of the game. He helped guide the Nationals to a respectable 2007 season of 73-89 when the Nationals were projected to be one of the worst teams in baseball by many experts. Acta came in 6th in the National League Manager of the Year award for the solid job he did as Nationals’ manager.
Another notable attribute regarding Acta’s managing skills is that Acta is one of the few managers in baseball who is aware of and uses sabermetric ideas and concepts, similar to those that are employed by respected general managers Theo Epstein of the Boston Red Sox and Billy Beane of the Oakland Athletics.
After Acta was fired following a 5-0 loss to the Houston Astros on July 12, 2009, Acta interviewed with both the Houston Astros and Cleveland Indians for their managerial positions following the 2009 season. On October 25, 2009, the Cleveland Indians announced that they had signed Acta to a 3-year contract, along with an option to be manager for the 2013 season.
In Acta’s first season as manager of the Cleveland Indians, the 2010 Indians finished at 69-93, only 4 games better than their 2009 season record of 65-97. However, the 2011 Cleveland Indians showed considerable improvement, as they started the 2011 season going 18-8 in April and 14-12 in May to be 32-20 about one-third of the way through the season.
However, the Cleveland Indians’ inexperience and mounting injuries started to take their toll, as the team started to lose its 7.5-game lead on the Detroit Tigers, who eventually overtook the Indians to win the American Central Division by 15 games at 95-67, while the Indians finished the season 80-82, holding off the Chicago White Sox by 1 game to finish in second place.
Acta’s youth, enthusiasm, and no-excuses persona rubbed off on the young Indians to still play hard down the stretch in September, despite the fact that the team was still not at full strength due to injury and the fact that they were disappointed that they would not reach the postseason after they could not hold off the Tigers to win the AL Central despite leading the division for virtually all of the first half of the season. They finished with a respectable 12-17 record in September while playing mostly back-ups and players who had spent most of the season at the Indians’ Triple-A affiliate in Columbus.
The Cleveland Indians’ management was so impressed by Acta’s handling of the 2011 Indians, particularly dealing with the numerous injuries and the ability to get the Indians to play hard throughout September when the Indians’ postseason dreams had ended early, that management has already picked up Acta’s option for the 2013 season, essentially insuring that Acta stays with the Cleveland Indians through the 2013 season.
Acta also has gotten much of the credit for steering the Cleveland Indians toward a potential postseason birth in 2012, as most experts didn’t feel that the Indians would show potential toward being a competitive team until 2012, with potential to vie for the AL Central division title in 2013. This is also another reason why Cleveland Indians’ management was willing to pick up Acta’s 2013 option early.
With the moves that Cleveland Indians’ General Manager Chris Antonetti has made over the past six months, particularly acquiring RHP Ubaldo Jimenez from the Colorado Rockies and RHP Derek Lowe from the Atlanta Braves, the Indians are planning on vying for the AL Central division title in 2012, and it will be up to Manny Acta to help guide the young and developing Indians toward that next step of playing at a high level throughout the whole season and earning a postseason birth in 2012.
