Ned Yost

Edgar Frederick Yost III (/ˈjoʊst/; born August 19, 1954) is a former Major League Baseball catcher and manager of the Milwaukee Brewers and Kansas City Royals. He played for the Brewers, Texas Rangers, and Montreal Expos.

Early life

Yost was born on California's North Coast in Eureka. Yost attended and played baseball at Dublin High School in Dublin, California. He had significant difficulty hitting prior to his junior and senior years, yet improved after building physical strength by working as a pot-scrubber at a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant. After high school, Yost attended Chabot Junior College in Hayward, California, where he walked on to Chabot's baseball team after receiving no offers to play for other schools.

Playing career

Yost, as a player, was used primarily as a backup catcher for the Brewers from 1980 to 1983 (which included the 1982 World Series), and then spent a year with the Texas Rangers (1984; he played a career-high 80 games with the Rangers, hitting .182) and played 5 games for the Montreal Expos (1985) before retiring.

He never had more than 242 at bats in a season. He ended his career with a .212 batting average, and .237 on-base percentage, in 605 at bats. He had a .982 fielding percentage (the league average was .987).

Yost briefly had a second career as a taxidermist in Jackson, Mississippi, in between his playing days and coaching days.

Coaching career

After a brief stint managing in the minors, Yost joined the Atlanta Braves organization. He was the Braves' bullpen coach from 1991 to 1998 and earned a ring as a part of the 1995 World Series championship team that defeated the Cleveland Indians in six games. He also was part of the 1991, 1992, 1996, and 1999 National pennant winning teams that lost each of those series to the Minnesota Twins (1991), the Toronto Blue Jays (1992), and the New York Yankees (1996, 1999) respectively. In 1999 Yost became the Braves' third base coach, a position he maintained until the end of the 2002 season.

Managing career

Milwaukee Brewers

On October 29, 2002, Yost was named the Brewers manager, succeeding Jerry Royster. National League manager Tony La Russa named Yost to be part of his coaching staff for the 2005 MLB All-Star Game.

Yost's tenure oversaw a revitalization of the Brewers franchise, leading them from losing records to championship contender. However, his teams were plagued by inconsistency, most notably squandering a large lead in the division during the 2007 season and a significant advantage in the wild card race in 2008. Yost finished seventh in voting for Manager of the Year in 2007. While he wore No. 5 on his jersey as a player with the Brewers, as a manager, he wore No. 3 on his jersey as a tribute to his close friend, deceased NASCAR racer and baseball fan Dale Earnhardt.

Yost's managing came under fire late in 2007. During the season, the Brewers held an 8-1/2 game division lead over the Cubs by June 23 but failed to hold on to the advantage, finishing two games behind the Cubs. Yost's bullpen management, lineup strategies, and bench management were blamed. He also was thrown out of three games in the last week of the season. However, general Manager Doug Melvin announced Yost's return for the 2008 season.

He was fired as manager on September 15, 2008, with 12 games remaining in the regular season. The Brewers were still in the playoff race, but had lost 11 of their last 14 games. Yost finished his Brewers career with a 457–502 record. Third-base coach Dale Sveum was named his interim replacement and served until the end of the season, leading the Brewers to clinch the wild card spot on the last day of the season for their first trip to the postseason since 1982 when they made it to the World Series. They were eliminated by the Phillies, the eventual World Series champions, in the 2008 National League Division Series, 3 games to 1.

Following the 2009 season, Yost was a candidate to be the next manager of the Houston Astros, however the position was filled by Brad Mills.

Kansas City Royals

On May 13, 2010, Yost was named manager of the Kansas City Royals, replacing Trey Hillman. Prior to the 2012 season, the Royals signed Yost to a contract extension through the 2013 season. In the 2013 season, Yost posted an 86-76 record with the Royals, their first winning season since 2003.

In 2014, Yost led the Royals to their first playoff berth since 1985, finishing 89-73. Yost's Royals swept the Baltimore Orioles in four games in the American League Championship Series to give the team its first American League pennant in 29 years. In doing so, the team became the first team in MLB history to win their first eight consecutive playoff games. The Royals were then defeated four games to three in the 2014 World Series by the San Francisco Giants. Yost finished third in the voting for 2014 Manager of the Year and signed a one-year contract extension in the offseason to stay with the club through 2016.

At the start of the 2015 season, Yost led the team to a 7–0 start marking the second best start to a season in team history (the team's longest consecutive opening win streak, in 2003, was 9 games. During that 2015 season (his fifth full season as manager), Yost became the longest-tenured manager in Royals history. He later also became the winningest manager in Royals club history after a 3-2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers on June 18, 2015. On the final day of the 2015 regular season, Yost's Royals clinched the best record in the American League at 95-67, giving Kansas City home field advantage throughout the playoffs, including the World Series by virtue of the AL's victory in the All-Star Game. The Royals defeated the Houston Astros, Toronto Blue Jays and ultimately the New York Mets to bring Kansas City its first World Series championship since 1985, and Yost his first title as a manager.

On August 18, 2015, MLB gave Yost a warning about using an Apple Watch he received from the MLB because of MLB's policy of no internet enabled devices in the dugout during gametime. Yost received the watch as a present from MLB for winning the 2014 AL pennant. Yost later told a local radio station that MLB had rescinded the warning after learning that the networking features of the Apple Watch were only available with an active iPhone connection.

Yost has often been criticized for his idiosyncratic decision-making and rejection of Sabermetrics, but insists his methods work.

On February 18, 2016, the Royals announced that Yost had signed an extension with the team, keeping him as manager through the 2018 season.

On September 17, 2016, Yost won his 1,000th game managed for the Royals and Brewers, in a Royals 3-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox. While also adding to his total as the winning-est manager in Royals franchise history (543 Wins), ahead of Whitey Herzog (410 Wins) and Dick Howser (404 Wins). In 2016 he was successful on a higher percentage of replay challenges than any other MLB manager with 10 or more challenges, at 67.6%.

In 2018 he was successful on a higher percentage of replay challenges than any other MLB manager with 10 or more challenges, at 75.6%.

On September 23, 2019, Yost announced that he would retire at the end of the 2019 season.

Managerial record

As of games played on September 25, 2019.

Personal life

Yost and his wife, Deborah, have four children and live in rural Georgia during the off-season. One of his sons, Ned Yost IV, serves as a coach for the San Antonio Missions, Class AAA minor league affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers. Prior to becoming a coach in 2009, the younger Yost played first base for the Class-A Brevard County Manatees in 2007, his third season in the minors, hitting .248 with a .283 slugging percentage.

On November 4, 2017, Yost was in a tree stand near his home in Georgia when he fell twenty feet. He sustained a broken pelvis, and his surgeon was concerned that Yost might die from blood loss. Yost later said he was certain he would have died if he did not have his cell phone at the time of the fall. He later appeared in a television commercial for Verizon, crediting its wireless service with saving his life.