Last week, we took a look at the Tigers’ managerial search, breaking down the list of candidates that are slated to interview and those that have been more casually linked to the vacancy in Detroit. The Phillies, too, have an opening in the dugout after surprisingly removing Pete Mackanin from that role and transitioning him to a front office role. Philadelphia had extended Mackanin just four months earlier, making the decision all the more unexpected.

As with the Tigers (and eventually with all of the managerial searches of the offseason), we’ll track the majority of the managerial chatter in a single place over the course of the search and update accordingly as the hunt progresses. Here’s the most up-to-date chatter on the Phils…

Latest Updates

• Dodgers director of player development Gabe Kapler is also slated for an interview, as MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki reports. Kapler took his position with Los Angeles after missing on the team’s managerial opening, but has continued to be cited as a possible candidate elsewhere ever since.
• Philadelphia is going to sit down with somewhere in the vicinity of ten candidates, according to Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer. The team will wrap up its first interviews this week and then likely begin a second round, with intentions of making a decision at the end of the month.

Will Interview/Have Interviewed

• The Phillies have interviewed Mariners third base coach Manny Acta, Jon Heyman of FanRag writes. Acta, who managed the Nationals from 2007-09 and the Indians from 2010-12, was in the running for the Mets’ job before it went to Mickey Callaway.
• Giants third base coach Phil Nevin interviewed for the job, via Todd Zolecki of MLB.com. Robert Murray of FanRag notes that Nevin was once a candidate for a managerial opening with the Diamondbacks, and that having played for 12 years on seven different major league teams sets him apart from other candidates.
• The Phils have already interviewed Athletics bench coach Chip Hale, according to Heyman. The 52-year-old fell out of favor with the Diamondbacks after just two years on the job, exiting along with GM Dave Stewart after a disappointing 2016 campaign.
• Indians pitching coach Mickey Callaway is slated to interview with the Phils. ESPN.com’s Buster Olney reported the initial interest, with Paul Hoynes of the Plain Dealer reporting that Philadelphia has officially asked for permission to discuss the opening with Callaway. Now that the Indians have been bumped from the postseason, the path is cleared to discussions. As Hoynes notes, the 42-year-old Callaway has had quite some success with an excellent Indians pitching staff.
• The Phillies already have one strong internal candidate in Jorge Velandia, reports Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com. Currently a special assistant to GM Matt Klentak, Velandia interviewed for the opening on Wednesday and is a “strong candidate,” according to Salisbury, though other interviews are sure to be conducted with external candidates. Nonetheless, Salisbury writes that the 42-year-old Velandia is well versed in player development and has embraced the analytical side of the game. His work with Klentak and the rest of the front office should bode well for communication. He’s spent time on the Phillies’ big league coaching staff in the past and has also spent six seasons as a manager in the Venezuelan Winter League.
• Current Phillies third base coach Juan Samuel has also interviewed for the opening, as Bob Brookover of the Philadelphia Daily News recently reported. Samuel, 56, has been on the Phillies’ coaching staff since 2011 after coming over from the Orioles, where he worked with Andy MacPhail, who was then the Orioles’ president and now holds that same role with the Phillies. Samuel spoke to Brookover about his own openness to incorporating more data-driven decisions into on-field decisions. “If you have something available to you that gives you an advantage over other clubs, you should definitely use it,” he said.
• Both Salisbury and Brookover list Triple-A manager Dusty Wathan as another internal candidate that is expected to interview. It’s not known yet whether the 44-year-old has interviewed, but he’s spent the past 10 seasons managing at various levels throughout the Phillies’ system, so he obviously has plenty of familiarity with the Phillies’ homegrown players and a number of the front office execs that have been with the club for an extended period of time.

Preliminary Candidates (Interview Status Unknown)

• In addition to a few of the other names already covered here, Heyman hears that the Phils have some level of interested in Red Sox bench coach Gary DiSarcina and possibly former Tigers manager Brad Ausmus. Boston is in the midst of its own managerial hiring process, with the club leaving coaches like DiSarcina free to explore their options with other organizations.
• Like the Tigers, the Phillies are interested in speaking to Rockies bench coach Mike Redmond, per FanRag’s Jon Heyman. There’s been no definitive word of an interview, but the former Marlins manager has been building his dugout resume since calling it quits as a player back in 2010. At 46, he’d give the Phillies a considerably younger voice than they’ve had under recent skippers like Mackanin, Ryne Sandberg and Charlie Manuel.

Not in the Mix/No Longer in Consideration

• Ryan Lawrence of PhillyVoice.com reported recently that the Phillies won’t consider bench coach Larry Bowa or former GM Ruben Amaro Jr. for the post. Klentak has stated a desire for a “new voice” and a “new style” in the dugout, Lawrence notes, which wouldn’t be accomplished with the 71-year-old Bowa. As for Amaro, while he’d been previously connected to the role and is reportedly on the Tigers’ radar, Lawrence definitively characterized the chances of Amaro being on the team’s radar as nonexistent.