Manager Notes: Red Sox, Sandberg, Mariners

The Nationals are expected to announce that Davey Johnson will return to the dugout in 2012 soon after the World Series ends. Here are more notes on MLB’s managers…

• Peter Gammons of MLB Network said on WEEI that Red Sox GM Ben Cherington thinks outside the box and mentioned Dale Sveum and Mike Maddux as managerial possibilities for Boston. Sveum, a 12-year MLB veteran, managed the Brewers on an interim basis in 2008 and Maddux is the Rangers' pitching coach. Justin Doubleday has more details at WEEI.com.
• Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein said on ESPN 1000's The Waddle & Silvy Show that he's going to speak with manager Mike Quade in the coming days. Talk about bringing a certain Hall of Famer in to replace Quade is premature, according to Epstein. "Ryne Sandberg obviously was a great Cub, great player, great guy by all accounts, but he's a Philadelphia Phillie,” Epstein said. “He's a Triple-A manager. It would be just so premature for us to talk about that."
• Toni Ginnetti of the Chicago Sun-Times explains that Epstein and Sandberg have been avoiding questions about whether Sandberg could manage for the Cubs.
• The Mariners announced that their entire coaching staff will return in 2012. “I feel we made progress this season,” manager Eric Wedge said in a statement, “and this group was a big part of it."