Abstract
Using results from 26 Major League Baseball seasons, we investigate the connection between behavior bias, managerial success, and tenure. We ask whether managers that have overachieved, relative to prior seasons, have a greater chance of remaining in that role, and if so, what was the subsequent effect on team performance. Our results indicate that MLB owners and team general managers are susceptible to behavioral biases. Team managers that overachieve in a season, relative to recent, historical team performance, endure longer tenures with their team, however, overachieving managers have statistically similar career win percentages to managers who underachieved. This result suggests that outperformance shouldn’t be a factor when evaluating team managers but is often a driving force for decision making.
Date of this Version
9-2025
Recommended Citation
Pastor, Daniel; Reed, Jason R.; and Sondhi, Arjun, "Behavioral Bias And Manager Success In Major League Baseball" (2025). Department of Agricultural Economics Faculty Publications. Paper 65.
https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/agedocs/65
Comments
This is the publisher PDF of Pastor, DJ; Reed, JR; and Sondhi, A. (2025) "Behavioral Bias And Manager Success In Major League Baseball." International Journal of Business & Management Studies," 6(9). Published CC-BY, the version of record is also available at DOI: 10.56734/ijbms.v6n9a5.