Manager search: Triple-A Syracuse's Billy Gardner Jr. brings wealth of experience to post

The Nationals open their search for their next manager looking for a skipper who has a good amount of experience in the job and communicates well with his players and staff.

Triple-A Syracuse's Billy Gardner Jr. just finished his 21st consecutive season as a manager in the minor leagues. Very few can match his resume as far as pure baseball experience goes - and at almost every level.

In 2007, his Montgomery club won the Double-A Southern League title. In 2012, he was named Southern League Manager of the Year. In 2014, he guided the Chiefs to an 81-62 record and earned the International League Manager of the Year citation. It marked Syracuse's best record in 16 seasons.

I interviewed Gardner in 2013 when he arrived from the Tampa Bay Rays organization with a wealth of experience. He spoke then about how important communication is between player and manager to make the player and the team better.

He re-emphasized today how critical communication is to a cohesive club.

"I think it's at the top of the list for me," Gardner said. "I think the strategy part of it - how you run a game, how you employ your bench - that's important. A lot of managers have a different way to go at that. You have to be able to communicate with the players, you have to be able to connect with the players. You have to let them know you have their back. For me that's how you get the most out of them."

Gardner said he spends a ton of time in the clubhouse, looking to reach out to each player on a daily basis.

"You need to be able to touch your guys every day," Gardner said. "I know I try to reach out to every player on my team every day. It may not be baseball-related stuff - it could be stuff that's off the field. How's your family doing? Stuff like that. Get to know your players better so they feel like you are there for them and you've got their best interest at heart, (and) I think they'll go out there and strap it on for you and play hard every day.

"But you have to stay in constant contact with the players. You've got to communicate with them; they got to know where they stand. You got to be truthful with them, too. You got to hit them between the eyes sometimes and let them know there are things they can do better and things they can do to help the team. But you also got make sure that they understand that you're there for them and you care about them as a person."

Gardner was with the Nationals as an extra coach in September after Syracuse's season ended.

"It's good for me to see the major league level," Gardner said. "Obviously, the speed of the game and how they prepare. Watching our club, it's good for evaluation for me as far as how it applies to the Triple-A team when I'm evaluating players and how they fit in the major league level. It's always a good experience to be around the coaches, get to know what they do and get to know the players a little better at that level."

Gardner said he worked a great deal with the infielders and younger players during extra infield work each day prior to batting practice.

"I was basically here to assist Matt (Williams) and the coaching staff," Gardner said. "My primary focus was on the infielders. I would go out with (defensive coordinator) Mark Weidemaier early and put them through ground balls and the work they did before the game with (Yunel) Escobar, Trea Turner, Wilmer Difo and others. Then I would assist with the other workouts prior to the game."

One of the top strengths in Gardner's tenure is those 21 consecutive seasons as a manager. That experience has afforded him the opportunity to see every game-related scenario. Minor league managing, especially at the Triple-A level, is a tiger that changes its stripes almost every week. Players are in and out of the lineup, moved up or down in the organization.

"I think when you have experience at the minor league level, it helps you to be able to adapt and adjust to changing circumstances because you're dealing with a very fluid roster," Gardner said. "Some guys may have certain restrictions - you can't use guys on back-to-back nights."

Gardner said he learned that using his relief pitchers at the right time and getting them the proper rest was critical to not letting games get out of hand.

"Obviously, running your bullpen is optimal because that's where you get stoned at the end of the day," Gardner said. "So you need (to know) how to manage your bullpen. You can lock guys into certain roles and you have to be flexible enough to kind of change the horses in mid-stream if you have to give your team the best chance to win. I think a lot of that goes to managing by what your gut is telling you.

"That's just from experience. When you've been around as long as I have, I go by my gut a lot of times. I go by what I think is best gut-wise. You still have to pay attention to what the numbers look like, and the stats and the roles, I get that. But sometimes gut is more important in how you manage a game."

Managing a Triple-A club also presents its own unique challenges from the type of player you deal with and where they are in their career track.

On one side, you have the can't-miss prospects hoping for their first taste of the bigs. In the same dugout, you also have players that have major league experience, but will most likely never return to the bigs in a full-time capacity and are insurance policies in case the big team needs a quick substitute.

"That's where the communication part comes in," Gardner pointed out. "The communication part is big. You have to make them feel like they got a chance. Guys that have been in the big leagues, right now they are now back in Triple-A, they are trying to get back. You have to be able to communicate with them and get them to understand that they still have a chance.

"Sometimes they think there's a feeling that they're never going to get back there. But you got to get players to believe they are going to get back there. Sometimes you have to take a step back to go forward. That is kind of the route I take with them.

"You get to that wall and you can't jump over it, you can't get over it, you got to take a couple of steps back to get a running start to get over that wall. That's how Triple-A is for me for those guys. They've got to understand they still have a chance and here's what they need to do to get back there."