Baseball has lost its share of managerial talent in recent years. The latest departure is St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, who retired Monday after 33 consecutive seasons in a dugout. He leaves with a .536 winning percentage and three World Series titles. That comes on the heels of Terry Francona’s firing by the Boston Red Sox last month. He had a .529 winning percentage and two World Series titles. And those two depart one year after Bobby Cox (.556 winning percentage, 16 playoff appearances, one title) and Joe Torre (.538 winning percentage, 15 playoff appearances, four titles) called it quits.

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Only 101 managers in the history of baseball have posted a winning percentage of .508 with at least five years of experience. Right now, only 11 active managers can say that. Buck Showalter and Fredi Gonzalez are tied at .509. Joe Maddon is just ahead (.510) of them. Dusty Baker (.521), Ozzie Guillen (.524) and Ron Washington (.527) have all tasted playoff success. Ron Gardenhire (.534) and Mike Scioscia (.548) both have led their teams to the postseason six times since 2000.

But the best of the best right now? A pair of wily veterans, including Nationals manager Davey Johnson. He is tied with the Phillies’ Charlie Manuel with a .561 winning percentage entering 2012. But Johnson will be 69 next year and Manuel will be 68. Neither figures to be around five years from now. Only Joe Girardi, 47, is higher than those two (.570). All three have led a team to one World Series title — tied for most among all active managers. No one left has won it even twice.