Soon after the Indians dismissed Manny Acta yesterday afternoon, it was reported that former MLB player Sandy Alomar Jr. is favored to obtain the permanent managerial position in Cleveland. Terry Francona, another candidate for the job, has already had some contact with the Indians. Here are today's managerial links…
- Francona confirmed that he's interested in managing the Indians and that he plans to interview for the position at some point, MLB.com's Jordan Bastian reports (Twitter links). "I wouldn't come in and interview if I wasn't [interested]," Francona said.
- There’s mutual interest between Francona and the Indians, Peter Gammons of MLB Network reports (Twitter link). Gammons points out that a peaceful, understanding environment may be more important than money to Francona, whose tenure in Boston ended poorly. The sides will have a better sense of how to proceed after the weekend, Gammons writes.
- Indians GM Chris Antonetti told Jim Bowden of ESPN.com and MLB Network Radio that Francona and Alomar are the only two candidates that the team is "publicly acknowledging at this point" (Twitter link).
- Jason Varitek joined the Red Sox as a special assistant, but declined to speculate about his future as an MLB manager. “I'm not in a position to make that a 'yes' or 'no' at this point,” he told reporters, including Rob Bradford of WEEI.com (Twitter link).
Not til Bobby V is dismissed that is.
Would have rather seen Dwight Evans as such, rather than Varitek. Evans is going to continue working around the system and with prospects.
Varitek could quite possibly become another of the “fair haired boys”, just like Butch Hobson did a little over 20 years ago and be fast tracked to become the manager shortly, decent or not, only because the FO wants him to be that *special manager*. I just hope that the team doesn’t lose yet another top notch manager, like they did when they fired Joe Morgan for Hobson when they decide Tek is to take over.
This forcing a manager is not wise.. They need to have more than just a season of running around the FO and being a “Do Boy”. even managing in the farm system for a year or 2 (like Hobson did) wasn’t enough to find his numerous flaws.
They are fast tracking a potential terrible mistake here is my 2c.
There has been more of a steady stream of players hitting the dugout lately, and even some without coaching experience. One could argue that Varitek was already a coach in the way he prepared for games. I can’t think of anyone without coaching experience who knows the market, knows the organization, and the uniqueness of Boston, better than Varitek.
There isn’t and won’t be. His attention to detail was crazy and it paid off. As a manager he would most likely be successful. Right or wrong, it Tek was named manager the players would be ecstatic.
Jason Veritek…Assistant General Manager…in charge of coaching young catchers. And, being Ben’s snitch down in the bullpen.
Funny, I always thought the manager chose his coaches.