The Guardians have interviewed Cubs bench coach Andy Green as they continue their managerial search, reports Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic (X link). He joins Dodgers first base coach Clayton McCullough, Giants bullpen/catching coach Craig Albernaz and Yankees bench coach Carlos Mendoza among those who have met with Cleveland brass.
Cleveland could add a big name to that list. Will Sammon of the Athletic reports that the Guardians have requested permission from the Brewers to meet with the current Milwaukee manager. Craig Counsell’s contract with the Brew Crew runs through the end of the month, meaning the Brewers have to sign off on any such meeting. Considering they’ve already granted him permission to interview for the Mets job, they could well do the same with Cleveland.
This is the first time Green has been publicly reported as a managerial candidate since he joined David Ross’ coaching staff during the 2019-20 offseason. The 46-year-old has spent four seasons in the #2 job in Chicago after three and a half years leading the charge in San Diego. The Padres tabbed Green as manager entering the 2016 season.
A mostly-rebuilding San Diego team lost 90+ games in his three full campaigns. With the club en route to a fourth-place finish in 2019, the Padres fired Green in September. That led him to Chicago. In addition to his three-plus years managing in the big leagues, the former MLB infielder had managed in the Diamondbacks’ farm system early in the 2010s.
Counsell’s MLB résumé is far more robust, as he has led the Brewers to a 53.1% win percentage and five playoff appearances in parts of nine seasons. Even if he meets with Cleveland, they’ll face competition from perhaps the Mets and a Milwaukee organization that has made clear it hopes to retain its longtime skipper.
A belief that New York would be willing to offer Counsell a notable raise relative to his reported $3.5MM salary is among the reasons some observers believe he could wind up in Queens (as is the oft-noted connection to new president of baseball operations David Stearns). Sammon writes that the Guardians could be prepared to make a competitive financial proposal to Counsell after making Terry Francona one of the league’s higher-paid managers during his 11 years there.
Seeking permission to b.ang your wife. Not sure why any team would be OK with this.
Some teams are non- monogamous apparently and prefer the swinging lifestyle of swinging for the fences. Lol
Don’t be fooled.
No one know the truth.
This is because any conversations with “Counsel” are protected by attorney-client privilege!
Counsell’s contract expires in less than a week. The Brewers are within their rights to decline any interview request.. but I am not sure what they achieve by doing so. Potentially they just tick Counsell off and delay his decision. If he wants to interview with other teams, he will. There is no stopping it.
If he wants to leave let him leave then. Theres no loyalty in sports anymore even if your from Milwaukee born and raised
Once his contract is up, it won’t be the Brewers’ decision to let him leave or not.
And “loyalty in sports” is a two-way street. He owes the team nothing because he was born and raised in Milwaukee, but if they want him to stay, they should show him loyalty by making it worth his while financially.
He fulfilled his contract with Milwaukee and did a great job. What else does he owe the Brewers?
It isn’t even clear how seriously he is considering other opportunities. He may just be exploring what is out there and getting a better idea of his market value.
I guess I incorrectly assumed Cleveland had a succession plan in place. They had to be aware that Francona was nearing the end of the road.
They want Sandy Alomar to be that guy but he keeps failing interviews.
Sandy declined an interview with Cleveland
Roberto alomar requested an interview but Cleveland couldnt find enough face shields.
What would a succession plan even look like for a manager? Francona retired, so now they’re doing what every team does. Seeking a replacement by interviewing candidates.
Cleveland hasn’t had anything like that. Most of their MLB staff is too old. Willis is probably close to retiring as is Hale. Alomar and Sarby both turned down even interviewing. There’s pretty wide held agreement that the gig is mostly for someone who can relate well to the players and be good at translating the analytics stuff to them. Sarby and Alomar aren’t really those guys. They notably didn’t even have a Quality Control coach.
They’ve had a lot of coaching talent leave – the big one being Cash. I think if Tito had his way Cash would be his successor but he’s obviously in Tampa and not leaving.
The only guy in the “pipeline” to my eyes is Rouglas Odor, managing in AA. He would make a lot of sense as someone with managerial and MLB experience who is also bilingual, so he can speak with everyone on the club in their language. Ultimately I would love to see him be the next bench coach or something.
Vogt seems like the guy they’re really leaning towards as someone who has handled that Quality Control role elsewhere, is a recent player, and apparently is noted for his ability to communicate. I would be surprised if the Counsel thing was anything more than just due diligence.
I bet no one is requesting permission to interview David Ross.
He’s got it made in Chicago anyway. Hoyer loves him & the owner came out very publically in support of him. Why would he want to go anywhere else? I wish he would, but…
Having a succession plan doesn’t mean they have an internal candidate that automatically gets the job without interviewing anyone from outside the organization.
Ideally you would have a few internal candidates to look at, which they do.. but the best person just might be someone from outside the organization. They may prefer to give the job to someone already with the club since they are a known commodity and are familiar with the organization.. or they may prefer someone from outside that has managerial experience and brings a fresh perspective.
I think there was an outside hope that he would stick around for another season. But also Alomar and Sarbough declining interviews may have been surprising to them.
I think Counsell would work well in Cleveland and I’d imagine that it would be a far better working situation than the Mets. Just because the Mets have blank checks to write doesn’t mean that it’d be a great place to work.
Counsell is already Stearns’ guy and you know the checks are going to be larger.
I think if he wanted Cleveland—he’d stay in Milwaukee. Similar budget constraints and team building philosophies.
Bigger checks and history of longevity in Cleveland. How long he would actually be the NYM job is likely to be short as NY requires them to be more reactionary.
Bigger checks in Cleveland? What?
I believe he may be referring to the fact that Tito was one of the highest paid managers in the game. Counsell is fine, but he’s no Tito.
I think you’re right, but I wouldn’t count on that being a regular occurrence. If CLE and NYM engage in a bidding war for Counsell’s services, I think we know who will win.
myaccount: stymeedone likely referring to Francona being one of the top paid managers
@CO Guardening: Do you “imagine Cleveland would be a far better working situation than the Mets” because you are a Guardians fan? Your username is a dead giveaway.
You actually have zero basis for saying that because you have no way of knowing, and you posting such nonsense on here will not influence Counsell and his decision, if any.
Why are you so mad? lol
I’m not, but what’s it to you anyway? lol
Blue Baron gets all upset when anyone says anything negative about the Mets.
Why would I think Cleveland would be better than the LolMets? How about organizational stability. Why else would guys like Chernoff decline an interview with the Lols? Better work environment that’s why. They even say so when asked by the media.
Just because you have a billionaire owner, doesn’t mean anything has changed in Flushing Meadows. It’s still the same dysfunctional franchise and we don’t know enough about the new LOL owner to know if he’s willing to let the process take its course. He could be another Arte Moreno for all we know.
Time will tell.
I’m not upset at all. I was just calling you out for your obvious bias toward the Guardians.
All of their organizational stability hasn’t resulted in much success on the field.
Sorry if I offended you.
Ha. To quote you many times over “what a dumb comment”. You didn’t offend anybody. But your bias towards the Mets is quite obvious and their instability has led to decades of failure as well.
But I am not on here crowing about how working for the Mets must be better than working for another team, because I don’t have the knowledge to credibly make such a statement.
Unlike you, who doesn’t have such knowledge either but talks about working for the Guardians as if you do.
Understand the difference?
It’s OK you’re upset. But it’s just baseball.
As far as Cleveland being a good place to work and better than New York, I’m simply regurgitating words spoken by lots and lots of people, news articles etc. Usually they’re included in any article about another team courting FO employees and their desire to stay put.
As far as the Mets, I can’t remember hearing about other organizations trying to poach anyone from their front office.
Certainly not under the Wilpon-Katz ownership since Joe McIlvaine left for San Diego.
But it’s funny. I have known people from Ohio who relocated here and swear they would never go back.
And more recently, the Yankees hiring Omar Minaya in the front office and Luis Rojas as 3B coach.
Would be shocking (and cool) to see Counsel choose the Guardians over both the Mets and Brewers!
“Seeking permission to speak with the counsell”
Sounds like it should be followed by hissing sounds.
No chance Counsell goes to the Indians. Done deal to the Mets
Who are the Indians?
Andy Green? Lol
Oh please hurry up and hire Andy Green. He is miscast in the Cubs organization as a bench coach. Ross makes too many mediocre in game decisions, he needs a much more experienced crusty old bench coach.
But AJ Preller’s track record in San Diego means that Green probably got the short end of the stick there and deserves another chance.
Would make sense to just grant him permission to whoever wishes. He’s free to do so after his contract expires anyways and gives them more time to prepare in case they need a new manager if he chooses to go elsewhere.
Cleveland may be better off seeking permission from the Rockies for Bud Black. Counsell is most likely managing the Mets or not at all and Andy Green was a disaster in San Diego. Maybe they should call Tire World and ask to speak to Lou Brown…
Can’t get Lou on the phone.. he’s talking to another guy about a set of white walls…
I think Lou went over the rainbow to see Dorothy and Toto a while back.
I heard Joe Maddon is still available as a manager.
They’re a good reason for this too…….
Cleveland is doing a no cost publicity stunt asking for permission to interview Counsell. They are looking for an inexpensive Manager who brings inexpensive coaches on board.
@westcasey: Based on what? Franconia was one of the highest paid managers in MLB.
Francona retired. They got exactly the type of Manager I thought. Inexpensive.
He could be terrific manager, certainly. But Counsell was never really a serious consideration, especially since he was looking to ‘set the bar’ in terms of Manager Salary. And Counsell did set the bar.
Is a manager really as important as all this suggests? In most all cases a manager’s success is dependent on the roster. You can hire a highly thought of manager but if the roster is weak what difference does it make? I think managers in baseball receive too much blame and too much credit.
Ignorant take. If a team’s success depended on the roster and nothing else, why not just save time and play the games on paper?
And the playoffs prove otherwise. The Rangers have obviously gotten great pitching from Montgomery and Eovaldi who were added this year, but otherwise the majority of their World Series team is the same as the roster that lost 94 games last year. I doubt they’re here without Bochy.
Cleveland has history with Counsell, he was the winning run for Florida in the 1997 World Series.
Honestly might be the deciding factor
Wouldn’t it be ironic if Maddon coached the team he beat in the 2016 World Series?
Chicagos one stipulation should be that Cleveland has to take Ross as well. If they want to get real greedy, Ross and Smyly.
The Dolans are not going to pay for Craig Counsell.
Even though they made Francona the second highest paid manager in the game.
There would be no sweeter justice in this world, than to see Andy Green not only manage the club, but win… There’s a lot of ex-Padres staff out there who I root for. ¡Yay Bochy!