Juan Samuel has gone about the business of being the Orioles' interim manager about as well as could be expected. He inherited a terrible team and has gotten it to play a lot less terribly, which might be enough to warrant a more extended tenure at some other time or place.
The Orioles have gone 14-20 since he replaced Dave Trembley and just pulled off a compelling four-game sweep over first-place Texas at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. Nobody's going to throw a parade for a guy with a .412 winning percentage, but it should be clear to anybody watching that this is a different Orioles team than the one that got poor Trembley fired six weeks ago.
So, what exactly does that mean for Samuel, who knew when he started this "audition" that the chances of his getting the permanent job were slim?
It actually means quite a lot. The chance to manage a major league team -- even for a few weeks -- doesn't come along every day, and Andy MacPhail and Peter Angelos aren't the only people who are watching. If the Orioles continue to show signs of life, you can bet that Samuel's name will become more prominent in major league baseball's managerial talent pool.
He has represented the club very well. He has handled the media very well. And, more importantly, he has inspired a higher level of intensity from the players, though it probably isn't fair to draw too stark a comparison with his predecessor, who was as much a victim of cruel circumstance as he was a major player in the team's early season undoing.
The struggling Orioles seem to be responding to him, which is what you look for during a managerial audition, but the club appears to be leaning heavily in the direction of veteran manager Buck Showalter. He would represent one thing that Samuel cannot no matter how the team plays -- real organizational change -- and that is probably the aspect of this entire managerial search that is most important to the fans.
Here's the ugly truth. It's very possible that Samuel is the right man for this job, but the franchise just can't afford to roll over an interim manager for the third time in the past five years. It's just not, if you pardon the expression in a sports discussion, politically feasible.
I can make a case for him. I could point out that the team is playing hard for him in spite of his apparent lame-duck status, which is a testament to the respect he has garnered in the clubhouse. I could point out that -- in the aforementioned different time or place -- he might be a very attractive candidate. He has proven capable under extremely negative conditions, and his positive attitude seems to be contagious.
Maybe that's why this process is taking so long. MacPhail continues to insist that he is in no hurry to complete the managerial search, while rumors continue to circulate that Showalter's hiring is inevitable.
Presented with that conflicting information, you're left to wonder whether MacPhail is slow-playing the situation to give Samuel more time to make a case for himself. And, if you're wondering why MacPhail might do that, consider that Showalter probably wouldn't be willing to come here if he weren't getting a measure of organizational control that might leave MacPhail vulnerable when his own contract comes up for renewal.
In other words, there might be another level of political intrigue at work here that could work to Samuel's benefit if the Orioles can pick up where they left off in Texas and play well for an extended period.
Guess we'll find out soon enough. The Orioles come out of the All-Star break with 10 straight games at home and an assurance from MacPhail that Samuel will be the manager at least through the coming weekend.
If he continues to get improved results, his stock can only go up, but it probably will end up paying dividends somewhere else.
Listen to Peter Schmuck on WBAL (1090 AM) on Fridays and Saturdays at noon and with Brett Hollander on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6. Also, check out his blog, "The Schmuck Stops Here" at baltimoresun.com/schmuckblog.
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