The Red Sox are beginning the process of bringing in candidates for their managerial opening. Cubs coach Will Venable has already come in to interview, while George Lombard of the Dodgers and Don Kelly of the Pirates are likely on the list of incoming interviewees, per MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (via Twitter). Venable has been a popular managerial candidate recently. He interviewed for openings with the Astros and Giants last season, ultimately returning to the Cubs to serve as their third base coach in 2020. The former player moved back into the dugout for the 2018 season after being hired by the Cubs as a special assistant. For the Red Sox opening, however, Alex Cora continues to be seen as the favorite, though he will not be able to interview for the role until his suspension lifts after the conclusion of the World Series.
- The Marlins are looking to hire a Team President that can complete their upper leadership group in the player ops department. That means augmenting and supplementing the work of Gary Denbo, their Director of Player Development and Scouting. Derek Jeter and Denbo are close, making it easy to presume that he could be a candidate to fill Michael Hill’s Team President role, but that’s not the case, per Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. Jackson provides a quote from Jeter that shines some light on his thinking for the position, as Jeter said, “Gary has done a great job where he is right now. You look at how you build an organization; you have to have a great scouting department and a great player development department. Gary deserves a lot of credit for what we’ve been able to do to this point. Where he is right now is where he is most important.”
- The Cubs and Theo Epstein remain aligned on the current plan for Epstein to play out the last year of his contract before likely departing after 2021. Executive VP and General Manager Jed Hoyer does not share Theo’s exit strategy, however, and it seems right now as if he’ll stay on to fully take control of the Cubs’ baseball ops department after Theo departs, writes The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma and Patrick Mooney. Hoyer has served as Theo’s partner in the front office for many years, but Theo still steers the ship, as was the case specifically with the Cubs’ rigorous approach to COVID-19 testing this year when they were the only team in the majors without a positive test. Hoyer will preserve a healthy dose of continuity when Theo leaves, but there will be change when the buck officially stops with him.
As a Cub fan, I personally appreciate everything Epstein has done but I do not want to see a lame duck PBO steering the ship and I sure as heck do not want to see Hoyer take over. The Cubs need a new voice and Hoyer would just be an echo.
It’s an unpopular opinion but I would love to see the Cubs bring in Lunhow and hand over the reigns to him when his suspension is over. He did a fantastic job building the Astros and keeping them competitive cheating aside.
Lol, you sound like the Chicago Cub’s version of me.
Drascoo, I’m with you 100% regarding keeping Hoyer around. To me, I fail to see how he has distinguished himself for the job. The best thing I believe he did for the Cubs – was to trade Anthony Rizzo TO THEM, when he was GM of San Diego.
Well I guess I also have to give credit to the Cubs brass, to whoever it was that brought in Tommy Hottovy. But the type of hitting philosophy and instructors they have brought in, are horrible.
Hoyer was on board with the Cubs when they traded for Rizzo.
Thanks for correcting me.
Josh Byrnes was GM of the Padres for the Rizzo trade. Hoyer had already come over to the Cubs.
Byrnes opted for Yonder Alonzo over Rizzo!
@Dogbone Hoyer was with the Cubs when they traded for Rizzo Einstein.
I just think it’s time for a new voice… as I said, I think Hoyer would be an echo of Epstein, viewing the roster and the farm system very much the same way as Epstein did. We need a fresh set of eyes, a guy that does not have the personal relationship that Epstein and Hoyer have with their players. Their bias since they drafted and developed them.
That is why I like Lunhow, regardless of his past, he was excellent at building and maintaining the success in Houston. He would offer a fresh set of eyes as all these players come to free agency and would have a different view point and evaluation of the Cubs prospects.
I’m not going to bash our hitting coaches, it’s the players responsibility to listen or disregard, I personally think they disregard. It seems the organization is still in love with launch angle hitters despite the clear cut evidence that the league has adjusted to launch angle hitters and have effectively neutralized them for the most part. The game has adjusted and changed rapidly and the Cubs are lagging behind…. They are still beating the teams that also have not adjusted because they simply have more talent but the teams that changed have managed to outpace the Cubs which has been evident in the post season and/or post season charges as we’ve seen with the Brewers the past couple seasons.
Baseball is also going to see a massive change when the automated strike zone comes into play so the next GM needs to be on the forefront with that.
Hoyer traded FOR Rizzo when he was Padres GM and traded FOR Rizzo when he was GM of the Cubs. Hoyer has never traded Rizzo
I said for years and Theo proved it all over again that he’s not actually a great GM, he’s just phenomenal at building a strong drafting infrastructure. Which is not nothing… but once you become a legit contender then other areas become more important: free agency decisions, trade market decisions, etc… and Theo has never demonstrated excellence in those areas with either team.
Of course he’s not a great GM. He’s not even a GM.
A distinction not relevant to this topic
A President of Baseball Operations is the de facto GM. Title inflation. The title doesn’t matter outside of making the person who has it feel better about themselves. In the end, Epstein runs baseball operations. Beyond that, I don’t agree with the OP. He’s been a good GM–I mean PoBO!–in that twice he’s done what he was supposed to do. Ended “curses” and brought championships. He’ll be going to the HOF for that.
Well, I’m going to have to disagree with you…. Epstein built the Cubs through drafting, scouting and trades.
In Boston he won one title by taking an already competitive team and tweaking the roster with some sly trades and free agent signings. The second title in 2007 he earned again with doing the same thing. Then wheels came off of a very talented 2011 team in shocking fashion… actually in similar fashion as the 2020 Cubs who were imploding at the end of the season.
So Epstein really has built from the ground up and he has sustained success at the highest level.
Epstein went away from what made him successful after 04 and 07. The farm system and scouting were great the first half of his time in Boston, but then came bad FA signings (Carl Crawford) and trades (Adrian Gonzalez) and too little money spent on pitching. It would have been better to keep Adrian Beltre (great 3Bman – Texas signed for $96,000,000 then trade Anthony Rizzo and other to SD only to pay Adrian Gonzalez $143,000,000 on top of the lost prospects).
The 2011 team had a glaring weekness….way too little starting pitching….!!! Some GMs think grabbing the high priced FAs can cure all and make your team a World Series team every year….it can not. Look at the Yankees….lots of free agents and zero World Series appearances in the last 11 years.
To be fair to Epstein and Francona the media went NUTS after 2011 (the beer and chicken BS) that ran both out of Boston. That being said LA rescued the Red Sox in 2012 and Cherington stumbled into a WS title in 2013 on the back of Ortiz and the arms of Lester, Lackey, and Uehara.
Epstein’s Red Sox teams went to 6 playoffs in 9 seasons and won two WS. Most fans of just about any franchise would be happy with that.
(Note: 10 of the 30 mlb franchises have 1 or few WS titles in their entire team history).
4W – agreed, Epstein now has 3 WS titles!
Adrian Beltre was great in Texas, sad to see him retire
You’ve been wrong for years.
So you prefer to bring in a guy with character issues? Don’t quit your day job. Just another moron who thinks he’s an expert in running baseball operations.
N2 – Beltre – Hall of Famer – is not a character guy moron
Do a little research if you do not know who you are talking about
When was Beltre considered a character risk, he was a model citizen in Boston and they loved him in Texas, I wish Boston would never of let him walk, great player and he seemed like he was a good teammate
I wish they would have re-signed him and passed on Adrian Gonzalez
When I first clicked on this I thought I saw Moyer instead of Hoyer, and that just made me click immediately lol.
Anyways, I see some dark times coming for Chicago. This reminds me of when A.J Preller left for San Diego, and Jon Daniels took over as the head GM of the Rangers. It just hasn’t been the same since. Not to mention the absence of Thad Levine. IDK, but most of the time when GMs have been partners with somebody else for their entire tenure as a GM, the quality of the moves tends to go down when one leaves.
John daniels is a bum, he took credit for the rangers success and it clearly was mostly built by Preller. With rangers lack of success over the last 7 years I’m surprised he still is employed, he must work for free or something?
I know the inevitable Varitek rumor will come up in regards to the Red Sox manager but does anyone else know who’s in serious contention? Wasn’t Mark Kotsay considered a finalist for the job before they gave it to Roenicke?
I’m hoping for Kotsay or anyone but Cora. Vazquez was actually recently quoted as wanting not only Cora as manager again but also added Beltran as the new bench coach. He wasn’t kidding. I will not be supporting the team if they bring back Cora. Without a true explanation on what his involvement was in Houston, I believe he cheated and should rebuild his image in the minors, not with a plum, prime MLB gig. How can fans root for cheaters who don’t respect the sport?
This might sound a little crazy but what it Jeter also handles president duties?
Jeter is President of the team, but I guess they’re looking to hire a President of Baseball Operations, which as I noted elsewhere, is simply a GM with a fancier sounding title. Jeter has no interest in being a GM. He said it himself. Too much work!
Wait… who was the Red Sox manager this year?? Did they just not hire anyone?
It was Ron Roenicke
That really wasn’t a hire. It was, “let’s just get through this year and get under the tax and play it as a lame duck season. Keep Ron around and just get through the season.”
They could have left the term “interim” in front of Ron Roenicke’s name
Why not give him the full title? He was manager. For a year.
Roenicke had to know Bloom would pick his own guy for 2021 !!! I knew that Roenicke 100 percent would be fired at the end of 2020, and I assume most mlb trade rumors readers could see this like writing on the wall.
Gary – 100 percent agree!
It really is amazing how the MLB and it’s teams as a whole just want to pretend the Astros scandal never happened. All it took was 1 year and all the issues with these managers seem to not be relevant anymore.
Let me put it this way. Let’s say you don’t even have a problem with what the Astros did. Can someone explain to me the difference between hiring Cora or Hinch or Beltran in 2019 that made it an issue and what has changed? It’s complete nonsense.
You dont know what you’re talking about. Alex Cora has a mustache now. It’s barely even the same guy.
Lol
A leopard will always have his spots.
I can’t imagine why the Cubs would want to go through having a lame duck GM scenario. If they truly know that Epstein doesn’t want to stay there long term, or if the Cubs don’t think he is the long term answer, then do each other a favor and move on to someone else. That situation as described here just screams awkwardness and dysfunction.
Yeah I’ve got to agree… why keep a guy around who’s openly saying he’s going to leave at the end of next season? It’s not like the Cubs are in a position where they need a guy who’s going to make a couple big acquisitions and then be in contention for the WS… they need to retool their roster… so why not start now? What could possibly be the advantage of keeping Theo for a ‘lame-duck’ season if he has no interest in staying long term and building things out for 2022 and beyond? Nothing against the guy… he’s had obvious success in both Chicago and Boston… but keeping a guy who’s known to be on his way out at the end of his contract just seems like an awkward and strange plan.
In most cases I’d agree, but Epstein ahd Hoyer are so close and have operated together for years that I doubt there’s an issue here. In fact, Epstein may plan to reduce his input while elevating Hoyer’s. Even if he doesn’t, they’ve operated tightly for years.
Will Venable is up for a Manager’ job. Sheesh. I feel old. I remember his father as a young player.
Howie – my first mlb game was 1971 the Washington Senators vs Red Sox in Washington. Ted Williams managed the Senators who moved to Texas and became the Rangers. Carl Yastrzemski was playing left field and made a spectacular catch. His grandson is playing for SF…, but I am only 59 and Yaz is 80. Players career are not 40 years like the average worker, so time seems to go much faster than it really is. MLB players is like dog years compared to humans. Their careers fly by in a flash.
Nice story 4W. We’re basically the same age (I’ll reach your plateau in six weeks). Yaz was my idol and in 71 or 72, my family took a road trip to Boston as my mom needed to be seen at the Leahy Clinic. Yaz was in a horrible slump and most of the stadium was booing him including my mom. I was too young to be told why she was treating at the clinic and after she joined in the booing of Yaz, I stopped speaking to her for the remainder of the trip! True story.
I do not understand booing your own team. It does not encourage them to do better.
I will boo Jeter all day long. Loved his comment on camera (I think it was 2003) that the Red Sox always choke…. I was rooting for Tampa Bay even more so once it got to game 7, so that big mouth Jeter and his Yankees could remain the mlb’s biggest choke. (I wish Jeter Downs would go back to his given name).
Perhaps Theo’s next stop will be Cleveland. Imagine breaking the trifecta of longest losing streaks. Theo would go into the HOF not as a legend, but as a god
Theo only plays with the rich kids.
I think Epsteins next landing spot may just be New York….. meet the Mets.
I don’t know why it is that so many commentators view themselves as oracles who know best how to run an MLB franchise, or why they think they know who in particular would be the best field manager, GM, or PBO. But then most of us never had a job in which we didn’t know better than our boss what the company needed or how it ought to be run. Face it, we’re all sideline critics who know nothing about these baseball jobs, or, if we are among the few who do, have never and will never be able to test their theories in action. But opinions are free, and on an anonymous site like MLBTR they have no consequences.
No one here is qualified. That is why we are in the comments section and not working for or getting interviewed for the positions. If only qualified people shared their opinions the comments section would be empty.
Exactly. And we’re fans. We like to talk. Sometimes yell. Often rant.
This is unreal. I really can’t believe they’re going to hire him back. Cora is a proven cheater.
Agreed.
Everyone in baseball cheats in some way or the other. Banging on trashcans in the dugout is no different than having the runner at 2nd base signal the batter on the C’s glove location or sign. No one seemed to care that 1/2 of the MLB were shooting up roids and the greatest offenders got off scot free and got to retain their WS championships. Its all relative and everyone in the sport is guilty at some point..
Oh, I agree that players cheat, but this is on a different order. This is a scandal, the worst since the 1919 Black Sox. Look at it his way. Someone who pockets a pack of gum without paying is committing a crime, but it’s not the same as someone committing murder. Cora is about to get away with murder here. Cora was a key instigator for the Astros stolen 2017 championship, and then he went and took it to the Red Sox for their 2018 championship. They couldn’t punish him for the Boston crimes because they didn’t have a Mike Fiers, but yeah, you can believe all you want it was the video room guy who the Red Sox tossed under the bus.
There are many qualified candidates out there. They can also go and groom a new candidate as Cora was himself, or Kevin Cash was himself in Tampa. Bringing back both Cora and Hinch after a 60-game season is an insult to fans and to the game of baseball. Neither man should ever manage a MLB team again, but MLB always sweeps these things under the rug.
Mostly, this pretty much confirms that Bloom has no control. He’s already gone on record indicating he didn’t want Cora back because 2017 still exists. A change of heart? Nah. If he returns it says he has no say, and was forced into this by ownership. Way to go. Don’t even let your new head of baseball operations pick his own manager.
With sports being married to legalized gambling now, there has to be a zero tolerance policy. Otherwise more and more lawsuits will be filed and the government could get involved.
Offer the job to Billy Beane and see what he can do with better backing….
Offer the Cubs GM post to Billy Beane and see what he can do with the Cubs money. That guy always puts together competitive teams.
Billy Beane has a 1% stake in the Oakland Athletics so another team cannot hire him. His company also had a deal in place with John Henry so odds are Beane is done with baseball as a front office executive.
So under Jeter’s thinking, if you’re successful you stay in place, and if you fail you’re promoted????
I suspect maybe he believes Denbo is not the right personality type for the GM role. Not all are. So while my question initially looks like I was insulting Jeter, in reality he may be trying to avoid the Peter Principle and not promote Denbo into a position of incompetence.