2020 Managerial Search Tracker
Eight teams were looking for new skippers in October, and loads of potential candidates have been either rumored or directly connected to these job openings. We’ll do our best to keep things straight in this post….
Angels
Hired
- Joe Maddon: former Cubs/Rays manager, former Angels bench coach/interim manager
Also Interviewed
- John Farrell: former Red Sox/Blue Jays manager
- Buck Showalter: former Orioles, Yankees, Rangers and Diamondbacks manager
- Johnny Washington: Padres hitting coach
Reportedly Received Consideration
- Joe Espada: Astros bench coach
- Joe Girardi: Hired by Phillies
- Eric Chavez: Angels special assistant
Cubs
Hired
- David Ross: former Cubs/Red Sox catcher, current ESPN analyst
Also Interviewed
- Joe Espada: Astros bench coach
- Joe Girardi: Hired by Phillies
- Gabe Kapler: former Phillies manager, former Dodgers director of player development
- Mark Loretta: Cubs bench coach
- Will Venable: Cubs first base coach
Giants
Hired
- Gabe Kapler: former Phillies manager, former Dodgers director of player development
Also Interviewed
- Joe Espada: Astros bench coach
- Gabe Kapler: former Phillies manager, former Dodgers director of player development
- Pedro Grifol: Royals quality control and catching coach
- Mark Kotsay: Athletics quality control coach, former Padres hitting coach & baseball operations special assistant
- Hensley Meulens: Giants bench coach
- Matt Quatraro: Rays bench coach, former minor-league manager
- Will Venable: Cubs first base coach
- Ron Wotus: Giants third base coach
Reportedly Received Consideration
- Raul Ibanez: Dodgers special assistant
- Mike Matheny: former Cardinals manager
Mets
Interviewing Twice
- Carlos Beltran: Special assistant to Yankees GM, former MLB outfielder
- Tim Bogar: Nationals first base coach
- Eduardo Perez: ESPN analyst, former Astros bench coach, former Puerto Rican Winter League Manager of the Year
- Derek Shelton: Twins bench coach, former Rays hitting coach
- Luis Rojas: Mets quality control coach
- Pat Murphy: Brewers bench coach
Interviewed Once
- Joe Girardi: Hired by Phillies
- Skip Schumaker: Padres first base coach, former Padres baseball ops/player development assistant, former MLB utilityman
- Mike Bell: Diamondbacks director of player development
Reportedly Under Consideration
- Buck Showalter: former Orioles/Yankees manager
- Mike Matheny: former Cardinals manager
Padres
Hired
- Jayce Tingler: Rangers player development field coordinator
Also Interviewed
- Ron Washington: Braves third base coach, former Rangers manager
- Brad Ausmus: former Angels/Tigers manager
- Rod Barajas: Padres interim manager, former bench coach
- Bob Henley: Nationals third base coach
- Mark Loretta: Cubs bench coach
Reportedly Received Consideration
- Joe Maddon: Hired by Angels
- Mike Matheny: Former Cardinals manager
Pirates — Search “paused” while team searches for new GM
Interviewing
- Ryan Christenson: Athletics bench coach, former minor-league manager
- Derek Shelton: Twins bench coach, former minor-league manager
- Stubby Clapp: Cardinals first base coach, former minor-league manager
- Matt Quatraro: Rays bench coach, former minor-league manager
- George Lombard: Dodgers first base coach, former minor-league manager
Reportedly Under Consideration
- Jeff Banister: Pirates special assistant; former Rangers manager, Pirates bench coach
- Mike Bell: Diamondbacks director of player development
- Mark Kotsay: Athletics quality control coach, former Padres hitting coach & baseball operations special assistant
- Joe Espada: Astros bench coach
Phillies
Hired
- Joe Girardi: former Yankees/Marlins manager
Also Interviewed
- Buck Showalter: former Orioles, Yankees, Rangers and Diamondbacks manager
- Dusty Baker: Special advisor to Giants; former Nationals/Reds/Cubs manager
Royals
Interviewing
- Vance Wilson: Royals bullpen coach
Reportedly Under Consideration
- Pedro Grifol: Royals quality control and catching coach
- Mike Matheny: Royals special advisor
Dale Sveum:Royals bench coach
AL Notes: Rangers, Choo, Red Sox, Bloom, Espada
As presently constructed, the 2020 Rangers project to roster four left-handed corner outfield options in Nomar Mazara, Joey Gallo, Willie Calhoun, and Shin-Soo Choo. That Choo underwent a surgical debridement last week is bad news from the perspective of The Athletic’s Levi Weaver, who opines that the soon-to-be-38-year-old Choo would have made for the club’s most obvious trade chip, had he not undergone the knife (link). While Choo projects to be fully healthy for Opening Day, Weaver still describes the outfield/DH option as “damaged goods” which other teams might be disinclined to deal for.
While Weaver’s concern over an aging player undergoing a shoulder procedure is justified, it’s far from certain that Choo’s minor operation would be the straw that broke the camel’s back in a trade negotiation. With one season and $21MM left on his deal and limited defensive value (-16 DRS and -9.0 UZR in 2019), it stands to reason that other clubs would simply prefer the Rangers other, younger, cheaper outfield options–with Mazara standing out as a player that both the Padres and White Sox checked in on this summer.
More items of interest from around the American League…
- As a means of welcoming Chaim Bloom to his new city, Boston Globe beat writer Peter Abraham gifts the new Red Sox GM with a letter prescribing first orders of offseason business (link). Abraham describes the club’s difficulty in discovering and developing starting pitching as their “greatest concern”, pointing out that the Sox have not drafted or signed an amateur pitcher of great import since the days of Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz, and Justin Masterson (current Boston starter Eduardo Rodriguez was a signee of the Orioles). Abraham’s reasoning is hard to argue with, although it is worth mentioning that the club drafted starter Michael Kopech in 2014, later trading the young righty (along with Yoan Moncada) in the Chris Sale deal. Otherwise, the club’s decision to draft Jay Groome in 2016 (with arms like Forrest Whitley, Eric Lauer, and Dakota Hudson still on the board) does loom as one developmental misstep of Bloom’s predecessor, Dave Dombrowski. Earlier today, our own TC Zencka took a look at some routes available to the former Rays executive as he seeks to bolster the club’s pitching for 2020.
- Astros coach Joe Espada was passed over for the Cubs manager job in favor of David Ross, but it doesn’t sound as if the coach is harboring any resentment toward the club, judging by quotes presented in a piece from Ken Davidoff of the New York Post (link). “I go in there and I present myself, and I provide a vision, my goals, and I show them my style and my personality and why I think I’m the right guy for the job,” Espada said on Friday. “And I made a strong case for myself [with the Cubs], and that’s all you could ask for.” In assessing the recent movements on the managerial market, Davidoff opines that Espada represents something of a middle-ground between the experience (Joe Maddon, Joe Girardi) and fresh perspective (Jayce Tingler, David Ross) that clubs have been opting for in their recent hires. Espada reportedly remains a candidate in both the Giants and Pirates manager searches.
Latest On Giants’ Manager Search
The Giants are moving on to the next phase of their search for a new manager, and third base coach Ron Wotus has been informed that he is no longer under consideration for the position, according to a tweet from Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic (link).
Recent updates on San Francisco’s hiring process included word of Astros bench coach Joe Espada receiving a second interview on Thursday. Aside from Wotus, who has coached with San Francisco since 1998, the team is said to have held interviews with Royals quality control coach Pedro Grifol, former Phillies manager Gabe Kapler, Athletics quality control coach Mark Kotsay, Giants bench coach Hensley Meulens, Rays bench coach Matt Quatraro, Cubs first base coach Will Venable, and Espada. It stands to reason that more candidates are due to be removed from consideration in the club’s “next phase”.
With so many names in their reported initial interview pool, Giants beat writer and San Francisco Chronicle scribe Henry Schulman recently opined that the team seemed unlikely to make a decision before the first week of November.
Stay up to date on all the league’s managerial rumors here.
Manager Notes: Bogar, Bochy, Martinez
Veteran baseball man Dave Magadan can be counted as one vocal supporter of Mets managerial candidate Tim Bogar, as the longtime MLB coach spoke of Bogar’s virtues to Mike Puma of The New York Post (link). Magadan, who has worked with Bogar on several coaching staffs, describes Bogar as a “sharp”, “attention-to-detail guy” capable of integrating analytics while still relating to players. Magadan says that coaches and players were very surprised that Bogar didn’t get the Rangers managing job that he held in an interim capacity after the resignation of Ron Washington in 2014. “We all thought he was going to get the job there in Texas,” Magadan says in Puma’s article. “Especially after we turned things around that last month, and it didn’t happen and we were all kind of surprised.” The Rangers ultimately gave the full-time gig to Jeff Banister despite Bogar’s 14-8 interim record, while Bogar ended up undertaking some front office work with the Angels before a coaching stop with the Mariners and, ultimately, the Nationals. Bogar interviewed with Mets leadership for the second time on Thursday, although Eduardo Perez has since been described as the “front runner” for the position.
More manager-centric notes from around the game…
- The Red Sox, Padres, and Indians are speculated as three potential landing spots for Bruce Bochy if the former Giants manager decides to make a 2021 dugout return, reads a piece from Grant Brisbee of The Athletic (link). Brisbee sees current Sox manager Alex Cora as “probably safe, but not with another disappointing season”. While it may seem odd at first glance to envision a Cora-Bochy transition, the writer is probably justified in believing that Boston’s leadership will likely have World Series-or-bust aspirations under new GM Chaim Bloom, given that the club has shown a willingness to move on from championship-winning executives like Ben Cherington and Dave Dombrowski in recent years.
- Rustin Dodd of The Athletic identifies Dave Martinez‘s bilingual capabilities as a key ingredient to the manager’s success (link). Dodd relays a tale from Martinez’s experiences as a player in the Puerto Rican winter leagues, where his lack of Spanish fluency did nothing to endear him to local fans and media (one game saw a 6-foot piece of barbed wire thrown in Martinez’s direction, according to the story). These early struggles promoted Martinez to turn to Benito Santiago and Juan Nieves for Spanish instruction. Nationals GM Mike Rizzo, for one, believes that those skills have been vital to Martinez’s relationships with young players like Juan Soto and Victor Robles. This piece comes just days after–according to reports–the Spanish skills of new Padres manager Jayce Tingler were considered a decisive factor in his hiring. In 2019, game-wide Opening Day rosters featured 251 players of international origin, with 102 of those players hailing from the Dominican Republic. It stands to reason that Spanish-speaking managers like Martinez and Tingler may soon become the overwhelming norm as the demographics of MLB continue to evolve.
Angels To Hire Mickey Callaway As Pitching Coach
9:30 pm: Though the club is still yet to announce the deal, Joel Sherman of the New York Post characterizes Callaway’s hiring as “official” (link). Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com also confirms the hire (link).
2:22 pm: The Angels have hired former Mets manager Mickey Callaway to be the new pitching coach, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network. He’ll join newly-minted manager Joe Maddon’s staff in Los Angeles. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale first mentioned that the two sides were close to an agreement. Per Nightengale, Callaway is stilled owed $1.05MM for the 2020 season by the Mets, who terminated his contract early.
Fired by the Mets just more than three weeks ago, It didn’t take long for Callaway to attract interest as a pitching coach, the role in which he made a name for himself. Though he’s drawn his fair share of criticism for his work leading the Mets over the last two seasons, he earned that position on the back of a half-decade of stellar work with the Indians’ pitching staff, which garnered him a reputation as one of the finest pitching coaches in the game.
Although Callaway and Maddon have never coached on the same staff, Callaway pitched for the Angels in parts of the 2002 and 2003 seasons, when Maddon served as the team’s bench coach. He also coached in the Indians’ dugout during the 2016 World Series, when his Indians were opposed by Maddon’s Cubs.
Between 2013-2017, the five years that Callaway served as the Indians’ pitching coach, no American League team managed a lower overall ERA than the Indians’ 3.65 mark. By all measures, Callaway’s Cleveland teams consistently ranked among the best pitching staffs in baseball. Of course, no small amount of that performance is owed to the superlative talents he had at his disposal: Corey Kluber, Andrew Miller, Carlos Carrasco, and others certainly put Callaway in an enviable position. Still, much of the development of Kluber, Carrasco, Danny Salazar, and Trevor Bauer came with Callaway at the helm; when he took over in 2013, Kluber was virtually anonymous, while Carrasco was a 26-year-old who had posted a 4.93 ERA in just 33 career games.
Angels To Hire John Mallee To Coaching Staff
The Angels are indeed hiring John Mallee to their coaching staff as an assistant hitting coach, according to a tweet from Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register (link). Bruce Levine of WSCR-AM had previously reported that Mallee was in consideration for a position on Joe Maddon‘s Los Angeles staff (link).
As Fletcher notes, the club has not announced the departure of any of their hitting coaches from the 2019 season, so the final staff makeup is still to be announced. At the least, they will be adding a very practiced hand in Mallee.
Mallee spent the majority of the last two seasons working under Gabe Kapler in Philadelphia before an offensive downturn saw him replaced in favor of Charlie Manuel. Before that, Mallee was Maddon’s hitting coach for the Cubs from 2014 through 2017, also serving as the chief hitting instructor on Bo Porter‘s Houston staff in 2013 and 2014. The 50-year-old Mallee, a native of Chicago, enjoyed a brief minor league playing career in the early 1990s.
Jeremy Reed, Shawn Wooten, and Paul Sorrento worked as hitting instructors on the Angels staff of Brad Ausmus in 2019.
Quick Hits: Angels, Mallee, Padres, Cubs, Ross
Hours after bringing Mickey Callaway into the fold as the club’s new pitching coach, it appears the Angels are interested in adding veteran hitting coach John Mallee to their staff, according to a tweet from Bruce Levine of WSCR-AM (link). Mallee was most recently a hitting coach with the Phillies before a team-wide slump saw him replaced by Charlie Manuel in mid-August of the 2019 season. Previously, the 50-year-old has worked as an MLB hitting coach with the Marlins, Astros, and Cubs, helping Joe Maddon‘s Chicago outfit to their World Series title in 2016.
- With the hiring of a new manager cleared from his offseason checklist, Padres GM AJ Preller now must turn to an even more urgent matter–the acquisition of more winning players to the team’s big league roster. As Kevin Acee notes in his piece for the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Padres still have a long way to go if they want to truly compete with teams like the Dodgers and Nationals. Interestingly, even one of Preller’s own players understands that his team, as currently constructed, might not stack up as a 2020 contender. “We’re not close yet,” one Padre told Acee. Readers should check out Acee’s article for his own assessment of where San Diego stands, though it is worth noting that the Padres could theoretically stand to improve in a few areas simply by shifting playing time allotments. San Diego’s tepid offense could be improved via a more full time-share for catcher Francisco Mejia, for one; Mejia’s rookie output (96 wRC+ in 244 PA) was much more encouraging than what the club has received from Austin Hedges in recent years (62 career wRC+), even if the value of Hedges’ sterling defense can’t be discounted.
- One of the chief challenges faced by new Cubs skipper David Ross will be, in the opinion of Steve Greenberg of The Chicago Sun-Times, how the former catcher handles tough decisions regarding some of his old teammates and good friends (link). Namely, Greenberg identifies Jon Lester and Jason Heyward as two players with whom Ross has a particularly deep relationship, as the new manager was the former’s personal catcher in Chicago and the latter’s mentor dating back to his time in Atlanta. Ross will be faced with being in the unique position of having to take the ball from Lester if–as he did at certain points in 2019–the pitcher struggles late in ballgames. Heyward’s own tendency to enter long Chicago slumps–to say nothing of his big contract–could also force Ross to endure some tough conversations in 2020.
Latest On Kurt Suzuki
5:14 pm: Suzuki will remain on the Nationals’ World Series roster, with Barry Svrluga of The Washington Post describing the catcher as “good to go” (link). Suzuki underwent an MRI earlier today, according to Todd Dybas of NBC Sports Washington (link).
Oct 25: Not only did the Nationals drop Game 3 of the World Series to the Astros on Friday, but they may have suffered a notable loss behind the plate. Kurt Suzuki departed early with a right hip flexor injury, manager Dave Martinez told Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com, Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post and other reporters. It’s not yet clear whether Suzuki will undergo an MRI.
This adds to an injury-laden month and a half for Suzuki, who missed a large portion of September while dealing with elbow issues. Suzuki has returned to serve as the Nationals’ No. 1 catcher for most of their playoff run this month, even though he took a 94 mph Walker Buehler fastball off the wrist and face in Game 5 of the NLDS against the Dodgers.
The physical beating the 36-year-old Suzuki has taken since September may help explain his recent struggles on the offensive side. After hitting a respectable .264/.324/.486 with 17 home runs in 309 regular-season plate appearances, Suzuki has fallen to 3 for 30 in the playoffs. He did homer in the Nats’ Game 2 rout over the Astros, however.
Looking ahead to Game 4, when the Nats will try for a commanding a 3-1 lead, Yan Gomes is likely to catch starter Patrick Corbin even if Suzuki’s hip problem isn’t serious. Gomes has regularly been the club’s choice at catcher when Corbin has taken the mound. As for Suzuki, Washington figures to know more on the severity of his hip troubles Saturday.
MLB Ruling On Astros Investigation To Come After World Series
Major League Baseball continues to investigate the incident involving the Houston Astros’ apparent attempt to discredit Sports Illustrated reporter Stephanie Apstein, per Joel Sherman and Ken Davidoff of The New York Post. Apstein, of course, published an article about inappropriate comments made during the Astros’ ALCS-clinching clubhouse celebration by assistant GM Brandon Taubman, who has since been fired.
Commissioner Rob Manfred made clear that a verdict will not come down from MLB until after the World Series is over. Sherman and Davidoff expect a fine at the very least, though the extent of MLB’s inquiry won’t be clear until their decision has been rendered. What is clear, per Manfred, is that the investigation began in response to the Astros’ initial statement regarding Apstein’s article.
As for the overall scope of MLB’s inquiry, said Manfred: “There are a variety of issues. I’m not going to narrow it to the statement or any of those. We’re going to continue to review the situation, have communication with (Astros owner Jim Crane).”
The incident is all the more frustrating for league officials as it continues to cast a shadow over the World Series, per The Athletic’s Marc Carig. Both the league office and the Astros are keen on keeping focus on the games ahead, though there remains an understandable amount of public curiosity regarding any potential sanction against the Astros.
The Nationals’ “Bottom-Up” Analytics Strategy
The Nationals are well known as one of MLB’s organizations still reliant on an old-school, if not yet antiquated scouting infrastructure. Much of this stems from GM Mike Rizzo, a former scout and scouting director himself. They are not, of course, blind to analytics, and as is the case with all front office these days, the way they blend traditional scouting with the use of analytics is what makes the footprint of their front office particular.
Their first-ever analyst hire, in fact, now serves as an assistant general manager. Sam Mondry-Cohen, a former bat boy, is a key figure in deploying the Nats “bottom-up” strategy to analytics, per Tyler Kepner of the New York Times. Mondry-Cohen and Rizzo stress the importance of clubhouse temperament to the utilization of their data, letting their players dictate to a large degree where and how data is utilized. The Nats organizational philosophy is more transparent than ever this season with mood-manager extraordinaire Davey Martinez helming a rambunctious veteran clubhouse that credits their on-field success to baby sharks, dugout dances, and group hugs.
The Nationals also credit themselves for mixing analytics with instinct in deploying a quick-strike offseason strategy that netted key players like Patrick Corbin, Yan Gomes, Brian Dozier and Kurt Suzuki last offseason. Bottomless sieves of data and a competitive landscape rich with intelligent front offices can make decision-making a slog, but the Nationals try not to dwell when instinct can kick-in. It’s served them well, as the Nationals have eight straight winning seasons and a new NL pennant banner to hang.
Once the World Series is finished, it will be interesting to see how this front office values their own free agents. The group includes obvious notables like Stephen Strasburg and Anthony Rendon, but surprise elite contributors like Howie Kendrick and Daniel Hudson also enter the free market, as does the captain of their folk hero superteam: Gerardo Parra.