Carlos Tosca

Carlos Tosca (born September 29, 1953 in Pinar del Río, Cuba)^[1] is the former bench coach for the Atlanta Braves and a former Major League and minor league baseball manager. He was the manager of the Toronto Blue Jays from 2002 to 2004. He succeeded Buck Martinez on June 3, 2002, served the entire 2003 season, and was replaced by John Gibbons on August 8, 2004, after compiling a 191–191 win-loss record (.500).

Tosca is a graduate of the University of South Florida. He did not play professional baseball, but became a coach at the high school level after his graduation. In 1978, he entered pro baseball as a coach in the Short Season-A New York–Penn League.

Biography

Tosca managed in the farm systems of the New York Yankees, Kansas City Royals, Florida Marlins and Atlanta Braves for 17 seasons between 1980 and 2001. He was the first manager in the history of the Portland Sea Dogs of the Double-A Eastern League, serving as their pilot from 1994 to 1996. He has managed at the highest level of minor league baseball with the Triple-A Charlotte Knights (1997) and Richmond Braves (2001), and was the bench coach on Buck Showalter's staff during the first three MLB seasons (1998–2000) in Arizona Diamondbacks history.

Tosca was hired as third base coach of the Blue Jays for the 2002 season by the club's recently appointed general manager, J. P. Ricciardi. When Toronto started poorly (20–33, .377) under Martinez—who had been hired by former GM Gord Ash—Ricciardi replaced the incumbent manager with Tosca. Over the final two-thirds of the campaign, Tosca led the Jays to a 58–51 (.523) mark and a third-place finish in the American League East Division.^[2] Tosca then produced another winning record (86–76, .531) and third-place finish in 2003.^[2] But in 2004, the Jays won only 47 of their first 111 games (.423) and were in fifth place in their division when Tosca was relieved of command by Ricciardi.^[2] The Jays finished the campaign at 67–94 (.416).

After returning to the D-Backs in 2005–2006 to coach third base under manager Bob Melvin, Tosca was the bench coach of the Marlins under Fredi González from 2007 to June 22, 2010.

When González was hired to replace Bobby Cox as the manager of the Braves following the 2010 season, Tosca was hired to serve as the Braves' new bench coach.^[3] He managed the Braves on May 10 and 11, 2013 due to González' daughter's college graduation.

On May 17, 2016 both Tosca and González were dismissed from the Atlanta Braves.

Managerial record

As of September 28, 2015

Personal

Tosca has an identical twin brother named Rick.^[4]

References

1. ↑ "Carlos Tosca Minor League Statistics & History". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved 20 November 2011. 
2. 1 2 3 4 "Carlos Tosca". Baseball Reference. Sports Reference. Retrieved September 28, 2015. 
3. ↑ http://www.ajc.com/sports/atlanta-braves/being-bilingual-an-advantage-683859.html
4. ↑ http://tampasportshistory.blogspot.com/2009/07/catching-up-with-carlos-tosca-part-i.html

External links

• Career statistics and player information from The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
• Carlos Tosca managerial career statistics at Baseball-Reference.com
• Retrosheet