In mid-December the Dodgers announced their minor league managers for the 2016 season. To conclude that there was a shake up in the managerial ranks would be an understatement. Bill Haselman moved from his league championship year with the High A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes of the California League to take over the reins of the AAA Oklahoma City Dodgers. Venerable manager John Shoemaker returns as the manager of the AZL Dodgers.

In between those two teams the managerial ranks underwent a radical change. The Tulsa Drillers, Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, Great Lakes Loons and Ogden Raptors all experienced a managerial youth movement. On opening day four new managers will be introduced in four Dodgers minor league venues. Ryan Garko, Gil Velazquez, Drew Saylor and Shaun Larkin are all aged 36 or younger. Garko and Velazquez will start the season as rookie managers. Perhaps the Dodgers are attempting to clone the aforementioned John Shoemaker who began his managerial career with the Vero beach Dodgers in the Florida State League in 1987 as a 30-year old.

Thirty-six year old Shaun Larkin was named as the manager of the rookie league Ogden Raptors in the Pioneer League. He was poached from the Cleveland Indians after three years of service in their minor league system.

Larkin was a four year varsity starter at La Quinta High School in Westminster, California where he played for legendary coach Dave Demarest an inductee into the National Baseball Coaches of America Hall of Fame in Chicago.

Shaun Larkin
(Photo courtesy of Lake County Captains)

Following his graduation from high school Larkin earned MVP honors in the Orange Empire Conference playing with the Cypress College Chargers and for nationally recognized head coach Scott Pickler. His coach had taken over a somewhat unsuccessful Cypress program in 1985, quickly turning the Chargers into a respected California powerhouse. He has been chosen as the National Coach of the Year for California Junior Colleges four times.

Larkin next moved to Division I baseball with the Cal State Northridge Matadors. As the starting second baseman on the 2002 Big West Championship team he started in all but one of his team’s 57 games. He finished the season with a .361 batting average along with 16 doubles, 15 home runs, and 49 runs batted in helping the Matadors finish the season with a 41-17 overall record. He wrapped up his season by earning All-Big West First Team honors for his role in helping his team advance to the NCAA Regional Championship that season. Larkin still holds a NCAA Division I record for consecutive times reaching base. Over a four-game span, he reached safely in 18 straight plate appearances.

At Cal State Northridge Larkin played for Mike Batesole, another noted head coach who was selected as the 2002 National Coach of the Year.

Larkin was selected in the ninth round of the 2002 Major League Baseball Draft by the Cleveland Indians, He played an integral part of six playoff teams and two championship teams during his six years as a professional. He played in the Indians organization from 2002 to 2007 and was an All-Star third baseman with the Lake County Captains during their first season in 2003. He ultimately advanced to the Triple-A level as a player before the Indians presented him with an opportunity to become an assistant coach.

Larkin began his coaching career with the Akron Aeros the Indians AA entry in the Eastern League working two seasons assisting both management and the coaching staff with player development and serving as a first base coach.

He returned to the breeding ground of baseball for the next four years working both at the high school and college level starting in 2009 as an assistant varsity baseball coach at Newport Harbor High School in Southern California. As the primary hitting instructor and infield coordinator he introduced a program-wide paradigm shift that focused on development of his player’s physical skills, talents, and mental acuities.

In a diversion from the usual baseball agenda he held weekly classroom sessions that focused on the evolution and expansion of his team’s leadership skills for use both on and off the diamond. These unique character-building opportunities are largely credited with helping the Newport Harbor baseball team reach the playoffs for the first time in 20 years.

He then served one season as an assistant coach at Orange Coast College during the 2010 season where he primarily worked with the infielders and hitters and aided head coach John Altobelli with recruiting in and around Orange County.

In 2011 Larkin was welcomed back to Cal State Northridge as an assistant coach working with head coach Matt Curtis for two years.

“He brings with him a wealth of recruiting contacts from a deep Orange County talent pool, and experience from winning championships at every level that he has been involved with,” stated Curtis. “I feel this makes him the right guy to help instill a championship culture with our student-athletes here at CSUN.

“In addition to Shaun’s experience coaching both professionally and internationally, he has been exposed to two of the best baseball coaches in Southern California in Scott Pickler at Cypress College and Dave Demarest at La Quinta High School,” added Curtis.

Larkin’s next step was another reunion, this time with his 2002 head coach Mike Batesole now with Fresno State. Larkin – to the delight of Batesole – signed on as an assistant coach with the Bulldogs and remained with the school for two years.

“Shaun brings both youth and experience to our program,” Batesole said of Larkin. “He is advanced beyond his years as a coach, just as he was as a player.

“His recent experience as a recruiter will open up many doors for us in Southern California, especially in Orange County,” Batesole said. “We can’t wait to get to work with him!”

Perhaps looking for advancement or perhaps with the realization that he had given all he could at the collegiate level Larkin returned to the Cleveland Indians organization in 2013 for three years serving as a hitting coach and then as manager of the Class-A Lake County Captains in 2015.

Larkin’s Lake County Captains did not make the Midwest league playoffs in 2015 despite having a winning record in both halves of the schedule. However, he looked past the win-loss record to measure the success of the season.

“It was a great year for a lot of first year guys in this league” Manager Shaun Larkin said of the team. “We saw a lot of guys get better in their individual areas. I thought we played well as a team. There’s a lot of grinding in a full year, and that’s all you can ask for – guys playing for each other the whole time. We gave ourselves a chance to win more often than not. We gave it a run in the first half, gave it a run in the second half up until about a week and a half ago. We had a winning record in both halves, we weren’t one of those teams who were hot one half and not the next.”

Then came the announcement in December, 2015 that he had signed on with the Dodgers as the manager of the short season rookie level Ogden Raptors. Larkin responded to becoming a manager in the Dodgers farm system.

“I’m honored and proud to be a part of the Los Angeles Dodgers organization and look forward to representing us in the great city of Ogden this coming summer,” Larkin said. “It will be great to be a part of the Raptor family and share the experience of watching our up and coming stars play at Lindquist field.

“[Coaching] is a lot of fun because for a majority of the group it’s the first experience they’ll have playing professionally,” said Larkin about his role as the Raptors’ manager. “It’s a career for them now and it will be their first time failing on the field. It’s exciting to work with them to get through that and help them get acclimated to professional baseball. Along with our staff, we look forward to teaching them what the Dodgers are all about. ”

So what is it that prompted the Dodgers to hire the 36-year old Larkin as a manager? It is definitely more than just part of a managerial youth movement? I expect his work ethic and his attendance to those aforementioned baseball acuities, along with his association with high school and college coaches of some renown for the success of their programs, may be part of his preparation for coaching and managing. His knowledge of the collegiate baseball scene in Southern California along with his connections certainly are an asset to the parent team.

Secondly, Shaun Larkin acknowledges his penchant for coaching even while he was an aspiring player and his desire to return to the game what it had given him.

“As a player, I kept gravitating to [coaching],” said Larkin. “I enjoy giving back to baseball just like my coaches gave back to me at the high school level, collegially and professionally.”

Beyond that, there must have been something on the Dodgers side that caused the management team to target Larkin as a manager for their rookie league team. I think that the evolution of a new Dodger way zooms in on player development as a way of life in the minor league system for managers removing them from just the regular nuts and bolts style of managing. That is, a new paradigm for minor league managers. Perhaps Director of Player Development Gabe Kapler speaks on behalf of the management team in the Dodgers front office.

“Quite simply, Lark is focused on making the work we do more efficient and effective. He knows we can’t just fall back on drills without merit,” Kapler said. “Everything we do in our practice should be with a deliberate purpose, and Lark is leading the charge in that regard. He’s fired up on a daily basis about changing the way we work in player development.”

It looks like the Ogden Raptors will be in good hands in 2016. There’s nothing like a leader with a fire in his belly to fire up the kids.