San Francisco Giants: The rarity of a manager winning 2,000 games

Bruce Bochy is only four wins away from reaching 2,000 career wins in the final weeks of his San Francisco Giants tenure.

In a career that has spanned 25 seasons while splitting his time between the San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants, manager Bruce Bochy has compiled quite the resume.

It includes one Manager of the Year Award, four World Series appearances, and three World Series titles.

The 2,000-win milestone will be another accomplishment in his long and distinguished career, and another stripe on his belt that further solidifies his place as one of the best managers in baseball history.

He has experienced a level of success that few managers in baseball history have seen before. The significance of the 2,000-win milestone rivaled only by the exclusivity of the club itself. Baseball is a game of milestone and achievements, and a manager winning 2,000 games is one of the rarest accomplishments in the game.

How does it compare to other milestones?

• 32 hitters have accumulated 3,000 hits or more.
• 27 hitters have slugged 500 home runs or more.
• 24 pitchers have reached the 300-win plateau
• 23 pitchers have authored perfect games

Currently, just 10 managers have reached 2,000 wins.

After a 5-4 victory on Tuesday night, Bochy is now only four wins away from becoming the 11th to join that exclusive list.

The table below shows how Bochy compares to the 10 managers in front of him in terms of career victories:

Hall of Famer Connie Mack impressively won 3,731 games over the course of a managing career that spanned 53 seasons and began before the 20th century and ended in 1950. Equally impressive was that Mack also managed through 3,948 losses. How did he have such a long career? Well, owning the team you manage has its perks.

Not surprisingly, each of the managers ahead of Bochy is in the Hall of Fame.

While Bochy’s Hall of Fame credentials were established long before the possibility of reaching 2,000 wins presented itself. Winning three World Series championships goes a long way.

Nevertheless, longevity is a quality that is becoming increasingly rare in today’s baseball landscape. Teams are shifting toward younger managers with limited experience who embrace analytics. The next San Francisco Giants manager will likely fit that mold.

As Bochy inches closer to the 2,000-win plateau, only Terry Francona looks to be on track to reach that milestone among active managers. His 1,659 wins are second to Bochy among active managers. He’s still a long way away from 2,000, but it’s certainly is possible.

Similar to 300 career wins by a pitcher, a manager reaching 2,000 victories seems like it could soon become a thing of the past.

Reaching 2,000 wins will be the icing on the cake to a long, storied career for San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy. It’s one that has often been defined by shrewd in-game management where the margin for error was zero. That is where Bochy seemed to be at his best and most relaxed, and where he relied on his oftentimes flawless instincts.