Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript
MLBTR’s Anthony Franco held a live chat today, exclusively for Front Office subscribers! Anthony took questions on the Giants' offseason priorities, the Red Sox's rotation, Emmanuel Clase's postseason struggles, whether the Yankees should re-sign Gleyber Torres, the possibility of a Jackson Merrill extension, KBO infielder Hyeseong Kim's expected posting, and much more!
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The Opener: NLCS, ALCS, Hamilton
With one team now on the verge of a trip to the World Series, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world headed into the weekend:
1. Dodgers one away:
A 10-2 drubbing of the Mets in New York last night in Game 4 of the NLCS leaves the Dodgers just one win away from the World Series. They’ll attempt to wrap the series up in New York at 5:08pm local time this evening with right-hander Jack Flaherty (3.17 ERA in 28 starts) on the mound. Flaherty was roughed up by the Padres in his first start of the postseason but bounced back in a big way during his start against the Mets earlier in this series when he threw seven scoreless frames and struck out six. The Mets will attempt to counter Flaherty with lefty David Peterson, who enjoyed something of a breakout season this year with a 2.90 ERA in 21 starts. He’s worked out of the bullpen to this point in the postseason but has mostly done well for himself with a 2.08 ERA in 8 2/3 frames, though four walks against just five strikeouts is somewhat concerning.
2. Guardians fighting back in ALCS:
The Guardians headed back to Cleveland down 2-0 in the ALCS yesterday but did not disappoint in front of their home crowd, prevailing in a back-and-forth extra innings affair 7-5 on the back of a home run by David Fry that followed a homer by Jhonkensy Noel that tied the game in the bottom of the ninth to keep the club alive. Now, the Guardians will have the opportunity to even the series against their home crowd when they face right-hander Luis Gil (3.50 ERA in 29 starts) in what will be the first postseason outing of Gil’s career at 8:08pm local time this evening. Cleveland will counter with right-hander Gavin Williams, who followed up a strong rookie campaign in 2023 with a lackluster 4.86 ERA in 16 starts this year in what will also be the first postseason appearance of his young career.
3. Hamilton to undergo MRI:
Before tonight’s game in Cleveland, the Yankees will have a decision to make regarding right-hander Ian Hamilton. Hamilton exited last night’s game against the Guardians due to what the team described as tightness in his left calf and is now headed for imaging. Hamilton posted a solid 3.82 ERA with a 3.03 FIP in 37 2/3 innings of work in the regular season but hasn’t seen much action in the postseason. The righty threw 1 1/3 scoreless innings during the ALDS against the Royals, but his lone appearance in the ALCS was last night’s injury-shortened outing where he surrendered a run and recorded just one out. Right-handers Mark Leiter Jr. and Clayton Beeter are among the hurlers who have been floated as possible injury replacements for Hamilton should he go on the IL, which would bar him from participating in the World Series in the event that the Yankees advance.
Offseason Outlook: San Diego Padres
The Padres won 93 games and went into October as a trendy pick for a long playoff run. Their bats stalled out in the final two games against the Dodgers, sending them into an offseason that could see a decent amount of turnover with a handful of important free agents.
Guaranteed Contracts
- Manny Machado, 3B: $314MM through 2033 (including $35MM in remaining signing bonus payments)
- Fernando Tatis Jr., RF: $306MM through 2034
- Xander Bogaerts, 2B: $225MM through 2033
- Jake Cronenworth, 1B: $71MM through 2030
- Yu Darvish, RHP: $63MM through 2028
- Joe Musgrove, RHP: $60MM through 2027
- Robert Suarez, RHP: $26MM through 2027 (can opt out after '25)
- Yuki Matsui, LHP: $24.75MM through 2028 (can opt out after '26 barring intervening Tommy John surgery)
- Wandy Peralta, LHP: $13.15MM through 2027 (can opt out after '24, '25 and '26)
Option Decisions
- LHP Wandy Peralta can opt out of final three years and $13.15MM on his deal
- Team, SS Ha-Seong Kim hold $8MM mutual option ($2MM buyout)
Additional Financial Commitments
- Owe $12.24MM to Red Sox as condition of Eric Hosmer trade
2025 financial commitments: $138MM
Total future commitments: $1.117 billion
Arbitration-Eligible Players (projected salaries via MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz)
- Luis Arraez (5.121): $14.6MM
- Dylan Cease (5.089): $13.7MM
- Tyler Wade (5.058): $900K
- Michael King (5.004): $7.9MM
- Adrian Morejon (4.140): $1.8MM
- Jason Adam (4.132): $5.3MM
- Luis Patiño (3.061): $800K
- Luis Campusano (2.144): $1.7MM
Non-tender candidates: Wade, Patiño
Free Agents
- Tanner Scott, Jurickson Profar, Ha-Seong Kim, Kyle Higashioka, Donovan Solano, David Peralta, Martín Pérez, Elias Díaz, Nick Ahmed
It seems like every offseason in San Diego results in a significant shakeup. This winter will probably be no exception, even if the Padres aren't going to make a single move that is as impactful as last winter's Juan Soto/Michael King blockbuster. Between a hefty arbitration class, a number of free agents who played key roles in 2024, and a late-season injury that dealt a hit to their rotation, there's a lot for the front office to address.
The offseason kicks off with option and qualifying offer decisions. There's not much intrigue with San Diego's pair of option calls. Wandy Peralta will forego his chance to opt out of the remaining $13.15MM on his free agent deal. Ha-Seong Kim will collect a $2MM buyout on his mutual option and test the market.
San Diego probably won't issue a QO to any of their free agents. The midseason trade renders Tanner Scott ineligible, not that the Friars were likely to offer a $21.05MM commitment to a reliever anyhow. Kim once seemed like an easy call for the QO, but his late-season labrum surgery makes that too risky. The only other candidate would be Jurickson Profar, who'll be one of the tougher free agents to value after a career year. If the Padres expect Profar to repeat this year's production, he'd be worth the QO price. Profar's career has been wildly inconsistent, though, and there's probably not enough payroll space to offer the first-time All-Star more than $21MM while addressing multiple holes on the roster.
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Yankees’ Ian Hamilton Headed For MRI With Calf Injury
Yankees reliever Ian Hamilton left tonight’s Game 3 loss in Cleveland with what the team called left calf tightness. The right-hander told Dan Martin and Greg Joyce of the New York Post that he’ll go for imaging before tomorrow night’s game.
Aaron Boone called upon Hamilton in the sixth inning while New York was trailing 2-1. He issued a leadoff walk to Lane Thomas before Daniel Schneemann hit a grounder to first base. Jon Berti knocked the ball down and flipped to Hamilton covering for the out. Hamilton evidently tweaked his calf while running to the bag. He threw a warm-up pitch after a replay of the call at first. He airmailed the throw and was immediately lifted for Tim Mayza.
Hamilton had a breakout season in 2023 after signing a minor league contract. He tossed 58 innings of 2.64 ERA ball behind a 28.9% strikeout rate and an excellent 55.3% grounder percentage. His follow-up has been more solid than great. Hamilton allowed 3.82 earned runs per nine across 35 regular season appearances. The strikeouts dipped by a few percentage points while his ground-ball rate plummeted to a pedestrian 43.8% clip. The 29-year-old missed a couple months midseason with a lat strain.
New York has carried Hamilton on each of their playoff rosters, though he hasn’t played a huge role. He made one appearance in the Division Series, working 1 1/3 scoreless frames with three strikeouts in their Game 2 loss to the Royals. This was Hamilton’s first action of the ALCS.
If the Yankees need to replace him on the roster, his season will be over. Players taken out midway through a playoff round are ineligible for the following series. The Post writes that one of Mark Leiter Jr. or Clayton Beeter would step into the bullpen as a replacement. Beeter only has three MLB games under his belt. Leiter has a lot more experience and seems likely to get the call.
Bryan Hoch of MLB.com relays (on X) that Boone indicated Leiter was the final cut from the pitching staff when the Yankees set their roster before the series. New York acquired the right-hander from the Cubs at the deadline. Leiter was striking out nearly 35% of batters faced at the time. He has continued to miss a fair number of bats in the Bronx (31.7% strikeout rate) but given up far too much hard contact. Leiter has been tagged for six homers in 21 2/3 innings as a Yankee and has been left off both series rosters to date.
Stadium Notes: Rays, Twins
As the Rays assess the damage to Tropicana Field following Hurricane Milton last week, the club’s ability to get the Trop back in working order in time for Opening Day 2025 has been thrown into serious doubt. Given that the club was already planning to relocate to a new ballpark nearby in in time for Opening Day 2028, questions linger about whether or not the Rays will look to return to their current stadium at all or instead look for an interim home while their newest ballpark is being constructed.
While it will likely be a few weeks before the Rays are able to fully assess the damage to the Trop and hash out a plan of action, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times notes that they’re expected to at least begin the 2025 season playing their home games elsewhere. That reality has led to a rash of speculation about where those home games may end up being played, with Topkin noting a push by local media in North Carolina to put the city of Durham, where the club’s Triple-A affiliate plays. Said coverage of a hypothetical temporary move to the area by the Rays includes a piece by Dallas Woodhouse of the Carolina Journal about the possibility that includes comments from a handful of local politicians supporting the possibility.
Whatever hopes North Carolina residents had of MLB games being played in Durham appear to have been dashed for the time being, however, as the Durham Bulls released a statement this afternoon emphasizing that not only have there been no discussions about the Bulls hosting the Rays in Durham, but that the Bulls “do not anticipate” hosting them for the full 2025 season due to “overlapping scheduled and other logistical challenges.” That statement seemingly rules out the possibility of the Rays playing a full slate of 81 home games in Durham next year, though the Bulls statement also notes that they are “always ready to help [their] parent club” and does seemingly leave the door open for the Rays playing part of the season in Durham if necessary.
That could be a useful option for Rays brass if they intend to fix the Trop up in time for the club to play games there later in the 2025 season, or if the club takes another route to filling out its regular season calendar such as sharing time with other minor league clubs or even one of the more extreme possible solutions floated by Topkin such as sharing loanDepot Park with the Marlins. Any of those options would likely come with some scheduling conflicts not unlike the ones that would face the Rays and Bulls in Durham, and a speculative solution to that dilemma could be spreading the Rays’ 2025 home games across multiple sites.
In other stadium news, a recent report from Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press noted that the Twins are only halfway through their 30-year lease at Target Field in Minneapolis. While that wouldn’t be especially noteworthy in most circumstances, the Pohlad family’s recent announcement that they intend to explore selling the franchise has prompted concern among Twins fans that prospective buyers may look to move the club out of Minnesota. If a buyer planned to do that, however, they’d have to wait quite some time in order to do so as the Twins’ lease stipulates that “shall not vacate or abandon the ballpark at any time” during the lease’s term.
In other words, any prospective buyer of the Twins would likely have to wait more than a decade before they could seriously consider relocation, a reality that could lead any potentially interested parties who hope to purchase and subsequently relocate a team to seek out other options that could lead them to their intended destination faster. That’s surely a relief for Twins fans who have in previous decades endured relocation and contraction attempts while the Pohlad family has owned the club.
Rangers Grant White Sox Permission To Interview Will Venable, Donnie Ecker
On the heels of reporting earlier today that the White Sox had interest in Rangers bench coach and offensive coordinator Donnie Ecker for their managerial vacancy, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reported this evening that the Rangers have granted not only Ecker but also associate manager Will Venable permission to interview with Chicago regarding their available managerial gig. Venable’s name first surfaced in connection with the White Sox last week.
Ecker, 38, got his start as a coach in 2015 with the Cardinals. He acted as a minor league hitting coach for St. Louis from 2015 to 2017 before joining the Angels’ Triple-A club in that same role for the 2018 season. He first cracked the big leagues as an assistant hitting coach with the Reds in 2019. He remained with the club for two years before joining the Giants as a hitting coach prior to the 2020 season, and he stuck in San Francisco for another two years before again changing organizations to join the Rangers in his current role as bench coach and offensive coordinator prior to the 2022 season.
It’s a lengthy resume, and Ecker would bring perspectives from five different big league organizations to an infamously insular White Sox club if hired. This isn’t the first time Ecker has come up as a potential managerial candidate for a big league club, either. Last winter, Ecker was rumored among the potential candidates to replace Gabe Kapler as manager in San Francisco before they ultimately hired Bob Melvin away from the Padres.
Venable has also seen his name come up in past managerial searches and has long been looked at as one of the league’s top up-and-coming potential managers. After playing parts of nine seasons in the majors, Venable joined the Cubs as a special assistant to the front office in 2017 before serving as first base coach in the following two seasons and third base coach during the shortened 2020 campaign. Venable departed Chicago following the 2020 season to become Alex Cora‘s bench coach in Boston. He remained in that role for two years before joining the Rangers as an associate manager under Bruce Bochy prior to the 2023 season.
Grant notes that Venable could be the leading contender to take Bochy’s place as manager in Texas when the 69-year-old eventually returns to retirement. Venable was seemingly comfortable with that arrangement when he declined interviews with the Mets and Guardians last winter in order to remain with the Rangers, but it’s possible he’s more seriously considering departing the Rangers this winter amid uncertainty regarding Bochy’s plans for the future. As Grant relays, Bochy told reporters following the end of the 2024 regular season that managing still “drives” him, seemingly leaving the door open to him sticking around beyond the end of his current contract in 2025.
The two Rangers coaches are hardly the only candidates connected to the job, of course. Dodgers first base coach Clayton McCullough and bench coach Danny Lehman, Tigers bench coach George Lombard, Padres special assistant A.J. Ellis, former Angels skipper Phil Nevin, Cardinals bench coach Daniel Descalso, and outgoing Marlins manager Skip Schumaker have all been name checked as potential candidates in the rumor mill, with Schumaker and McCullough getting particular attention as potential leading candidates.
Whoever ultimately takes the reins in Chicago will enter an tumultuous situation. Not only is the club coming off a disastrous 2024 campaign that set the modern record for losses in a single season at 121, but the club’s ownership could be up in the air following a report yesterday that indicated longtime owner Jerry Reinsdorf is discussing selling the club to former big leaguer Dave Stewart. While all that uncertainty and the likely long timetable for a return to contention could make the club’s managerial gig seem somewhat unattractive, the relative scarcity of big league manager jobs is sure to draw the attention of quality talent nonetheless.
Latest On Yoán Moncada
Infielder Yoán Moncada is going to get some reps next month. Per Francys Romero on X, Moncada will play for Cuba in the upcoming Premier12 tournament, which is set to take place in multiple countries in November.
He’s likely happy to get the playing time, as he only got 45 plate appearances over 12 games in 2024. That was mostly due to injury, as Moncada suffered a left adductor strain in April and didn’t come off the IL until mid-September. Even when he was back with the club, the Sox didn’t play him much, preferring to give the work to younger players with more potential to contribute in the long run.
Moncada is about to become a free agent. The Sox have a $25MM club option to keep him around for 2025 but they will certainly go for the $5MM buyout instead, since he hasn’t been his best self in a while.
Marketing himself to other clubs in free agency will be a challenge after an essentially lost season, which is surely part of the reason he’s planning to put his spikes on and play next month. He was also limited by injuries in the previous two seasons, playing just 196 games over 2022 and 2023 while hitting .234/.288/.386 for a wRC+ of 86.
Though he’s been injury prone of late and has seemingly been around forever, it’s easy to forget that he still hasn’t celebrated his 30th birthday, which will be in May. His high-profile defection from Cuba was over a decade ago, but he was just a teenager at that time. He went on to sign a huge deal with the Red Sox, when that was still possible under the old amateur spending rules, later getting traded to the White Sox as part of the Chris Sale mega trade before signing a notable extension with Chicago.
But he’s still relatively young and was in good form as recently as a few years ago. In 2021, he stayed healthy enough to play 144 games for the Sox. He slashed .263/.375/.412 that year for a 120 wRC+. He also received solid marks for his glovework, as he usually does, leading to a tally of 3.7 wins above replacement in the eyes of FanGraphs.
The recent injuries and tepid performance will both send him to free agency and knock down his earning power on the open market, but it’s possible that some clubs will view him as a strong bounceback candidate who could potentially provide strong return on a modest investment.
Dodgers Notes: Rojas, Hernandez, Hudson
Miguel Rojas was left off the Dodgers’ NLCS roster due to a partially torn left adductor muscle, and the infielder has already said he’ll need to undergo surgery to correct the problem after the season is over. However, as Rojas told Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times, he is also dealing with a sports hernia that will require more surgical attention.
Despite it all, Rojas is still hoping he can heal up enough in the interim to be part of a potential World Series roster if the Dodgers can get past the Mets. Rojas suffered the adductor injury in the last week of the regular season and was able to play in three games in the NLDS (hitting two singles in eight plate appearances) but hasn’t played since he was removed for a pinch-runner in the third inning of Game 3.
Assuming Los Angeles did advance to the Fall Classic, there’s obvious risk for the Dodgers in rostering a player who clearly won’t be at anything close to 100 percent. Teams can make (with league approval) injury-related roster substitutions once the World Series begins, yet that wouldn’t prevent the Dodgers from finding themselves short-handed during a game if Rojas had to make another early exit. The decision will ultimately hinge on both Rojas’ health and what the team feels a limited version of Rojas can still bring to the infield mix. Other injuries will also be factors, like the hip flexor issue that kept Gavin Lux out of Game 2 of the NLCS.
With these health issues mounting, Enrique Hernandez has been a godsend for the lineup, as the utilityman moved into the starting lineup once Rojas went down. Since Tommy Edman took over for Rojas at shortstop, Hernandez has become the new primary center fielder, though Hernandez has also seen action at third and second base, including a start at second base in Lux’s place in Game 2. In addition to the defensive versatility, Hernandez has been hot at the plate, with two home runs and a 1.084 OPS in 20 PA in the Dodgers’ last five games.
Hernandez had already established a reputation for himself as a clutch postseason hitter prior to 2024, though his improved form might’ve been sparked during the summer when he started wearing glasses. As The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal notes, a conversation with Martin Maldonado in June inspired Hernandez to undergo an eye exam, which revealed an astigmatism in his right eye. Hernandez started wearing glasses to help his vision, and after an adjustment period, he hit .274/.307/.458 slash line over his final 180 PA of the regular season. While not standout numbers, it was still a marked improvement over the .191/.258/.299 line Hernandez posted in his first 213 PA.
In other Dodgers injury news, right-hander Daniel Hudson didn’t pitch in Game 2 due to what manager Dave Roberts revealed to media (including Bill Shaikin of the L.A. Times) described as a “lower-body” problem. Hudson was deemed available for Game 3 and while he wasn’t one of five pitchers used in the Dodgers’ 8-0 win, that might’ve had more to do with the increasingly lopsided score than with any lingering concerns over his injury.
With gamesmanship in full effect in the playoffs, it isn’t surprising that Roberts wasn’t specific with the nature of Hudson’s issue. Any sort of lower-body injury is of particular concern in Hudson’s case given that he tore his ACL in June 2022, and then pitched just three innings during the 2023 season due to recovery from that ACL tear and then an MCL strain.
The good news is that Hudson returned from these injury-marred years to deliver a healthy and productive 2024 season. Hudson allowed a ton of hard contact and benefited from a .225 BABIP, but he finished the year with a 3.00 ERA and above-average strikeout and walk rates over 63 innings out of the Los Angeles bullpen. A postseason hero for the Nationals in their 2019 World Series run, Hudson has continued his strong work in October with 3 1/3 scoreless innings so far in these playoffs.
Latest On White Sox Managerial Search
TODAY: The White Sox also have interest in Rangers bench coach/offensive coordinator Donnie Ecker and Dodgers bench coach Danny Lehmann, Fegan and Nelson report. Chicago may have to wait until the NLCS is over to speak with Lehmann or another reported target in Los Angeles first base coach Clayton McCullough, who 670 The Score’s Bruce Levine cited as “a leading candidate” for the White Sox job back in September.
OCTOBER 16: While not the biggest piece of White Sox-related news today, the club’s more immediate piece of short-term business is finding a new manager. James Fegan and Josh Nelson of Sox Machine report that Tigers bench coach George Lombard and Padres special assistant A.J. Ellis are two of the candidates being considered in a still-evolving search.
This isn’t the first time that the 49-year-old Lombard has been linked to a managerial opening, as he previously interviewed with the Pirates in 2019 (before Derek Shelton was hired) and for the Tigers in 2020. Though Detroit ended up going with A.J. Hinch as its new skipper, the Tigers were impressed enough by Lombard to bring him aboard as the bench coach soon after Hinch was hired, and Lombard has subsequently spent the last four seasons in the role.
Lombard’s playing career saw him appear in parts of six seasons from 1998-2006, and he hung up his cleats following a 2009 season spent in the minors and in independent ball. He then worked in the Red Sox farm system for the next six seasons as a coach, roving coordinator, and manager — a two-season stint with the Red Sox rookie league affiliate in 2011-12 represents Lombard’s only experience as a manager. After a few months working with the Braves as a minor league coordinator in 2015, Lombard quickly moved onto a new job as the Dodgers’ first base coach, and spent the 2016-20 seasons as part of the L.A. coaching staff.
In a coincidental overlap, Ellis was still playing for the Dodgers in 2016 during Lombard’s first season. Ellis spent nine of his 11 MLB seasons with the Dodgers, and then after retiring following the 2018 season, stayed in the NL West by taking on an assistant role within the Padres’ baseball operations department. The special assistant title is a nebulous one that tends to vary greatly in responsibilities based on the individual’s specialties and the club’s needs, but Fegan writes that Ellis has done “plenty of roving player development work” over his six years in San Diego.
Moving into a regular job in the dugout would therefore represent an entirely new frontier for the 43-year-old Ellis, who has no formal managerial or coaching experience. Of course, Ellis’ long career as a catcher shouldn’t be discounted, given the long line of ex-catchers moving into managerial roles. As Fegan notes, Ellis had a reputation as a leader on the field during his playing days, and the White Sox could be interested in seeing if Ellis can make as a smooth a transition from catching to managing as Stephen Vogt did for the division rival Guardians.
Neither Lombard or Ellis have ever crossed paths with Chicago GM Chris Getz as a teammate or co-worker, nor were Lombard or Ellis ever former members of the White Sox organization. This fits with Getz’s prior statement that the White Sox were looking to bring in a new voice as the club’s next manager, though interim manager Grady Sizemore would receive some consideration.
Beyond these names, former Angels manager Phil Nevin, Rangers associate manager Will Venable, and Cardinals bench coach Daniel Descalso are known to be on Chicago’s list of candidates. While the Sox still want to talk to some coaches on teams currently playing in the postseason, some preliminary culling has already started to take place, as Fegan writes that the White Sox have already eliminated some candidates from consideration. A source tells Fegan that former Marlins manager Skip Schumaker is “still alive” in the search, which is no surprise given that Schumaker has long been viewed as a preferred choice for the job.
Latest On Marlins’ Managerial Search
There hasn’t been a lot of concrete information about the Marlins’ managerial search, but one formal candidate has now been identified, as Isaac Azout of Fish On First (X link) reports that Tigers bench coach George Lombard will interview about the position this week.
It is the second time in as many days that Lombard has been linked to a managerial opening, as the White Sox also reportedly have interest in speaking with the 49-year-old. Since the Tigers’ surprising playoff run only just ended last Saturday, it makes sense that Lombard is only now becoming available for interviews.
Lombard has some distant past ties to the Miami organization, as he played in the Marlins’ farm system back in 2008 but didn’t see any time with the club at the MLB level. His playing career ran from 1994-2009, and included 144 Major League games with four different teams from 1998-2006. Lombard played in 13 games with the Rays in 2006, though this predated the time that Marlins president of baseball operations Peter Bendix spent in the Tampa front office.
Lombard’s only managerial experience came in the form of two seasons (2011-12) in rookie ball, running the Red Sox Gulf Coast League affiliate. Lombard spent six seasons overall working for Boston as a manager, coach, and coordinator in the minors, then briefly worked in a minor league coordinator role for the Braves in 2015 before the big leagues came calling.
After just a couple of months with Atlanta, Lombard was hired as the Dodgers’ first base coach, a role he held from 2016-20. The first two of Lombard’s seasons in Los Angeles overlaps with Gabe Kapler‘s stint as the Dodgers’ director of player development, which creates an interesting link to the Marlins since Kapler is now Miami’s assistant general manager.
Lombard won a World Series ring with L.A. in 2020 and was then hired by the Tigers as their bench coach during the 2020-21 offseason. The responsibilities of a bench coach vary from team to team, but the Detroit News’ Chris McCosky writes that Lombard’s chief duties include offensive game-planning, as well as coaching baserunning and outfield play.
The bench coach hire came after the Tigers also interviewed Lombard for their own managerial vacancy at the time, which was filled by A.J. Hinch. Lombard had previously been on the Pirates’ radar in their managerial search a year prior (before Derek Shelton was hired), and the Red Sox also reportedly had some interest in speaking with Lombard before Alex Cora was re-hired as manager in November 2020.
If hired as the Marlins’ next skipper, Lombard will be tasked with helping turn around a team in the midst of an extensive rebuild both on and off the field. The Marlins made a wide range of firings after the season, letting go of not just Skip Schumaker‘s coaching staff but also the team’s conditioning and training crew and the clubhouse attendant staff. Presumably the new manager would have a lot of leeway in hand-picking people to fill these roles, with Bendix and Kapler obviously also having plenty of input.
Speaking of Kapler, Azout also notes that the Marlins have some interest in speaking with Giants assistant coach Alyssa Nakken about the managerial role. Nakken has been working with San Francisco for over a decade, and her five-year stint on the coaching staff began after Kapler was hired as the Giants’ manager prior to the 2020 season. Her role on the staff bears some similarity to Lombard’s skillset, as Nakken’s duties also included outfield instruction and baserunning.
Nakken became the first woman known to ever receive a proper interview for a Major League managerial position when she spoke to the Giants about their vacancy last October. Obviously history would be made if the Marlins or any other team hired her to run their dugout, though Miami is particularly noteworthy since the organization was also the first to hire a woman (Kim Ng) as general manager. The 34-year-old Nakken would also become the youngest current big league manager.
Apart from Lombard and Nakken, Guardians bench coach Craig Albernaz and former Marlins bench coach Luis Urueta have also been mentioned as candidates under consideration as Miami’s next manager. Former Marlins pitcher Anibal Sanchez has also reached out to the club about the position, but it isn’t known if the Marlins reciprocated that interest.