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Brad Ausmus

Athletics Finalize Coaching Staff

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A few weeks after naming Mark Kotsay manager, the A’s announced their 2022 coaching staff this afternoon. As previously reported, former Tigers and Angels skipper Brad Ausmus steps in as Kotsay’s bench coach. Meanwhile, last season’s hitting coach — Darren Bush — transitions to third base/run prevention coach. Third base coach had belonged to Kotsay before he was promoted to succeed Bob Melvin in the manager’s office.

Replacing Bush as the top hitting instructor is Tommy Everidge, who’s been promoted from the same role at Triple-A Las Vegas. It’ll be the first big league coaching job for the 38-year-old, who briefly appeared in the big leagues with the A’s back in 2009. He spent the bulk of the last decade coaching his way up the Oakland system.

Pairing with Everidge is Chris Cron, who’ll join the staff as assistant hitting coach. The father of Rockies first baseman C.J. Cron, Chris Cron logged some big league time in the early 1990’s and joins the A’s after a long run working with prospects in the Diamondbacks system. Previous assistant hitting coach Eric Martins will slide over to first base coach, with Mike Aldrete vacating that post to serve as quality control coach.

The pitching instruction tandem will remain in place. Pitching coach Scott Emerson is back for his fifth full season in the role. Marcus Jensen, who (along with Bush) drew some consideration in the A’s managerial search this winter, returns to last season’s position as bullpen coach.

Athletics Expected To Hire Brad Ausmus As Bench Coach

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The Athletics’ search for a new bench coach appears to be over, as MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (via Twitter) reports that Brad Ausmus is expected to land the job.  It will be Ausmus’ first on-field job since he was fired as manager of the Angels following the 2019 season.

The 52-year-old Ausmus has been linked to several other managerial positions since leaving Anaheim, interviewing with the Padres, Astros, and (most recently) the Mets about their openings in the dugout.  This also marks the first actual coaching job of Ausmus’ career, as he worked as a special assistant with the Padres in between the end of his playing career and his hiring as the Tigers’ manager in November 2013.  Ausmus then worked another special assistant job for a season in the Angels’ front office before taking over their managerial position.

Now paired alongside newly-hired Oakland skipper Mark Kotsay, Ausmus will provide a veteran voice as Kotsay embarks on his first gig as a big-league manager.  Ausmus has 808 games (386-422) and five seasons under his belt managing Detroit and Los Angeles, highlighted by an AL Central crown with the Tigers in 2014.

When the A’s let Bob Melvin take the Padres’ manager job, it also led to the departure of former bench coach Ryan Christenson, who followed Melvin to San Diego.  Kotsay and now Ausmus will fill those two vacancies, though it remains to be seen if Oakland might yet make any other changes to the coaching staff heading into 2022.

Update On Mets’ Managerial Search

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Not long after reports of the A’s conducting their first managerial interview surfaced, the Mets have begun an interview carousel of their own. SNY’s Andy Martino reports that the Mets conducted their first managerial interview today, and expect to keep the process going Tuesday. Among the identified managerial candidates include a trio of bench coaches— Houston’s Joe Espada, Tampa Bay’s Matt Quatraro, and Pittsburgh’s Don Kelly— as well as two veteran managers, Buck Showalter and Brad Ausmus.

Martino notes that the current list of candidates still has room to grow, but throws cold water on the notion that beloved Mets alumni Curtis Granderson and David Wright will interview after their names surfaced in earlier discussions. Whoever makes the shortlist and earns a shot at interviewing will meet with newly-minted GM Billy Eppler and his staff. Owner Steve Cohen will meet with vetted candidates some time after the initial round of interviews.

The identity of today’s interviewed candidate was none other than Brad Ausmus, per MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. Ausmus has quite a few things going for his candidacy that surely helped net him the first opportunity to meet with Mets decision-makers. One such factor working in Ausmus’s favor is his relationship to Eppler, as Ausmus served as a special assistant to Eppler before being promoted to dugout manager in 2019 while the two were with the Angels. In other networking news, Fansided’s Robert Murray also notes that Ausmus is a Dartmouth alum like Mets president Sandy Alderson and assistant GM Bryn Alderson.

Unlike some of the candidates who have yet to interview, Ausmus also has a track record as a Major League manager. Between his time with the Angels and Detroit, he has compiled a 386-412 record as a manager, including two winning seasons at the helm and a playoff appearance. It probably also doesn’t hurt Ausmus’s case that his best season in Detroit coincided with Max Scherzer’s last season in the AL. Scherzer, one of the Mets’ marquee pickups this offseason, owns one of the game’s more fiery personalities and is perhaps best handled by a dugout operator who’s familiar with his tempo.

If Quatraro’s name rings a bell it may be because he interviewed with the A’s within the past couple of days. That the Tampa Bay bench coach has landed interviews for 100% of this offseason’s managerial vacancies is no surprise. The Rays have proven their division’s winningest team during Quatraro’s time as bench coach, no small feat considering the powerhouses that reside within those same confines. Martino reports that Quatraro is in line for a Tuesday interview.

There aren’t many updates for the remaining candidates of Espada, Kelly, and Showalter, though they all remain highly credible options in the wake of MLBTR’s profile of their candidacies last week. Jon Heyman does note (via Twitter) that Espada and Eppler share a “strong link” dating back to their time in the Yankees organization, and calls Espada a “serious contender”.

Latest On Mets’ Managerial Search

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10:04 pm: Martino tweets that while Granderson’s name had come up in initial discussions, he is not expected to interview for the position.

9:49 pm: Robert Murray of FanSided reports (on Twitter) that longtime big league outfielder Curtis Granderson is also under consideration for the Mets. The 40-year-old announced his retirement from playing in 2020 following a 16-year big league career that included a trio of All-Star appearances and a Silver Slugger Award.

Granderson had emerged as a respected veteran presence in clubhouses over the course of his career. He currently serves as the president of the Players Alliance, a nonprofit organization aimed at increasing accessibility within the sport for Black athletes. Granderson played four seasons with the Mets during team president Sandy Alderson’s time as the club’s GM. Prior to that, he spent four years with the Yankees — a stint that overlapped with Eppler’s time in the club’s front office.

6:35 pm: The Mets declined an option to bring back skipper Luis Rojas shortly after the end of the 2021 season. Two months later, they remain without a manager. After spending a significant chunk of the early offseason in the search for a new GM that eventually landed Billy Eppler, the Mets turned their attention to the player market last week in advance of the lockout. With clubs barred from making major league transactions for the duration of the work stoppage, the Mets and the Athletics, the other team currently without a manager, figure to zero in on those respective searches in short order.

Andy Martino of SNY reports some preliminary candidates, naming Astros bench coach Joe Espada, Rays bench coach Matt Quatraro, Pirates bench coach Don Kelly and former MLB managers Buck Showalter and Brad Ausmus among those under early consideration. Martino cautions that’s not an exhaustive list, and it’s not clear whether everyone in that group will get an interview.

No one from that group registers as much of a surprise. None of Espada, Quatraro or Kelly has managed at the big league level, but they’ve all been rumored as part of searches elsewhere. Espada, 46, has been the bench coach in Houston for the past four seasons, working underneath both A.J. Hinch and Dusty Baker. He’s interviewed for a few different managerial openings in recent years and at one point even looked to be the favorite for the Giants job that eventually went to Gabe Kapler.

Quatraro’s name has come up a few times over the past couple offseasons. Kevin Cash’s top lieutenant over the last three years in Tampa Bay, the 48-year-old Quatraro has interviewed with the Giants, Pirates and Tigers in winters past and was reportedly a finalist for the Pittsburgh job that went to Derek Shelton. Kelly has worked underneath Shelton in the Steel City over the past two seasons. The 41-year-old interviewed with the Tigers and Red Sox last offseason and was reported to be among the top handful under consideration for the job that went to Alex Cora.

Showalter and Ausmus, meanwhile, come with significant managerial experience. The former has been one of the more accomplished skippers of the past couple decades. Showalter, now 65, landed his first big league managerial job with the Yankees in 1992. He spent four years in the Bronx, managed the D-Backs from 1998-2000, the Rangers from 2003-06 and the Orioles from 2010-18.

Over his career, Showalter won Manager of the Year Awards at three of those four stops. He’s overseen five playoff clubs (including three division winners), taking the 2014 Orioles to the AL Championship Series. Showalter hasn’t managed since being dismissed by Baltimore after the 2018 campaign, but he’s continued to express openness to a return to the dugout.

Ausmus, meanwhile, has managed at two separate stints. He spent the 2014-17 campaigns at the helm of the Tigers, then managed the Angels in 2019. That stint in Anaheim overlapped with Eppler’s tenure as Angels’ GM, fueling immediate speculation upon the latter’s hiring with the Mets that he could look to bring Ausmus to Queens.

Prior to that stint as skipper, Ausmus spent the 2018 season as a member of the Los Angeles front office. Eppler’s Angels fired Ausmus after just one season in the managerial chair, but it was reported at the time that call was made by owner Arte Moreno (perhaps not coincidentally just one day after it was announced Joe Maddon was leaving the Cubs).

Latest On Padres’ Managerial Candidates

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The Padres are one of two teams with a current managerial vacancy, having fired Jayce Tingler last week. Braves third base coach Ron Washington — the runner-up to Tingler in the club’s previous managerial search — has already expressed interested and been reported to be under consideration for the position, and speculation about a few other potential candidates has begun to emerge.

In addition to Washington, Padres’ brass has done some background work on veteran managers Bruce Bochy and Buck Showalter, reports Buster Olney of ESPN (Twitter link). Bochy told Chris Russo of SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Sports Radio channel last Friday that he hadn’t been contacted by the Friars to that point, but he expressed some openness to considering the role if the club were interested. Showalter, meanwhile, has a lengthy managerial career that includes stints with the Yankees, D-Backs, Rangers and Orioles dating back to 1992. The 65-year-old last managed in 2018 with Baltimore, but he’d bring an accomplished resume — three Manager of the Year award wins and five postseason appearances — to the table.

Bob Nightengale of USA Today adds three more candidates to the mix, suggesting each of Brad Ausmus, John Gibbons and Jeff Banister could be under consideration. Ausmus, a former Padre player and front office executive, had previous stints managing the Tigers (2014-17) and Angels (2019). Gibbons spent two separate stints at the helm of the Blue Jays, leading the club to a pair of playoff appearances from 2015-16.

Banister, meanwhile, spent four years leading the Rangers — somewhat ironically succeeding Washington in that position after the latter stepped down near the end of the 2014 season. Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller has hired quite a few former colleagues from his time in Texas, but Preller had already matriculated to San Diego by the time the Rangers hired Banister. The 57-year-old Banister spent four years at the helm in Arlington, leading the team to a pair of playoff appearances in his first two seasons before they dropped below .500 over his final couple campaigns.

Olney also adds one more interesting wrinkle, suggesting the Friars may have interest in Yankees’ skipper Aaron Boone. Boone has spent the last four seasons in the Bronx, but his contract is set to expire at the end of this season. It’s entirely possible the Yankees sign Boone to an extension and keep him in the fold, but there’ll be at least some uncertainty regarding his status until New York makes a formal announcement about his future with the organization.

Clearly, San Diego has taken a broad approach to the initial round of hiring, with a wide array of early candidates in the mix. Kevin Acee of the San Diego of the Union-Tribune reports that the club is hoping to pare things down a bit by the end of this week, although there’s no firm timetable set for advancing the process.

Interestingly, each of the publicly-known initial candidates has some degree of managerial experience at the major league level, a few having managed with multiple franchises. Padres’ chairman Peter Seidler indicated last week that wouldn’t be a prerequisite for the position. It’s likely there are also others under consideration who have no prior MLB managing history, but it’s nevertheless noteworthy to see the Pads at least kicking the tires on a group of well-known skippers after Preller’s first two hires (Andy Green and Tingler, respectively) were both assuming the role for the first time.

Astros To Interview Brad Ausmus

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The Astros have added to the list of candidates for their surprise managerial opening. Brad Ausmus is in Houston presently to take an interview with the club, Mark Berman of FOX 26 was among those to report on Twitter.

Ausmus had two stints with the Astros during his playing career, accounting for ten of his 18 seasons in the majors. He has gone on to manage the Tigers and the Angels, though neither stint has turned out as hoped.

The Halos decided to move on from Ausmus after just one season, putting him into limbo for the 2020 campaign. Ausmus sat down with the Padres earlier in the offseason to discuss their opening, but did not get that gig and wasn’t prominently connected to any others.

Ausmus joins a long list of known candidates that includes quite a few other experienced skippers and some others who’d be managing for the first time. In the former camp are Dusty Baker, Jeff Banister, Buck Showalter, and John Gibbons. Candidates without prior MLB managerial experience include Joe Espada, Eduardo Perez, and Will Venable.

Latest On Padres’ Managerial Search

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The Padres have made a fair bit of progress in their managerial search, though it remains unclear at this point which direction they’ll go. There’s now added clarity on the handful of serious candidates as well as the interviewing timeline.

It’s now clear that Braves third base coach and former Rangers skipper Ron Washington is a serious possibility. He interviewed today, as Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. It was already known that Brad Ausmus had interviewed as well.

But those aren’t the only candidate to get a sit-down interview. Indeed, Scott Miller of Bleacher Report tweets that quite a few others have already been in to meet with GM A.J. Preller and company.

Rod Barajas and Jayce Tingler were already known to be candidates. They have in fact held interviews, according to Miller. Unlike the two men mentioned already, Barajas and Tingler are each looking for their first opportunity to helm a big-league team.

It may be that the list doesn’t extend beyond those four names. Miller reports that long-time MLB managers Buck Showalter, Joe Girardi, and Mike Scioscia appear not to be part of the ongoing Padres search. Whether there are more candidates still under consideration beyond those isn’t yet clear.

Padres Interview Brad Ausmus

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The Padres have narrowed their managerial search down to “no more than five men,” Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune writes. The club interviewed experienced major league manager Brad Ausmus for the role on Wednesday, according to Acee. Jon Heyman of MLB Network previously reported the two sides would likely meet to discuss the job.

It’s been a whirlwind couple weeks for the 50-year-old Ausmus, whom the Angels fired Sept. 30 after just one season in the position. The Angels mustered a horrid 72-90 record under Ausmus in 2019, though it would be unfair to place all the blame on him after the team dealt with so much adversity that was out of his control. Injuries to key players weighed the Angels down throughout the season, but there was no worse blow than the death of one of their top starters, Tyler Skaggs, on July 1.

Before Ausmus’ lone year running the Angels’ dugout and clubhouse, he managed the Tigers to a 314-332 record with one playoff berth from 2014-17. Ausmus is also well-known for a long run as a major league catcher from 1993-2010, during which he played his first three-plus seasons with the Padres. He now has a home in San Diego, Acee notes.

Along with Ausmus, Rangers player development field coordinator Jayce Tingler and former Rangers manager/current Braves third base coach Ron Washington are reportedly among the Padres’ candidates. But it’s not clear whether they’ve interviewed anyone other than Ausmus yet.

Managerial Rumors: Kapler, Maddon, Ausmus, Beltran

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Rumors have swirled that Gabe Kapler could be finished as the Phillies’ manager, though club ownership is taking its time in determining Kapler’s fate, as NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Jim Salisbury tweets that a decision “likely” won’t be made until next week.  The Phils have a 161-163 record in two seasons under Kapler’s leadership, with both the 2018 and 2019 squads fading out of contention down the stretch.  This past season’s 81-81 record is particularly disappointing given the many high-profile roster additions made by the club last winter, though in Kapler’s defense, the Phillies also suffered through significant injuries to Andrew McCutchen and virtually every member of their bullpen.

The latest rumblings on dugout vacancies from around the sport….

  • Joe Maddon has widely been linked to the Angels’ job and “is set to interview with” the club, ESPN.com’s Buster Olney reports (subscription required).  As of Tuesday, there reportedly hadn’t yet been any contact between the Halos and the former Cubs skipper, though many expected it was only a matter of time before Maddon emerged as a candidate in Anaheim, given his longstanding history with the organization.  Maddon spent 31 seasons with the Angels as a player, minor league manager and coach, and member of the MLB coaching staff.
  • Brad Ausmus, the Angels’ former manager, is expected to interview with the Padres, according to MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link).  A hiring would represent something of a homecoming for Ausmus, who began his 18-year playing career with 303 games for San Diego.  Ausmus is still owed two years’ worth of salary after being — rather surprisingly — fired by the Angels after the season, though it’s also understandable that he would pursue other opportunities for a quick return to managing.
  • The Padres had interest in interviewing Carlos Beltran for their managerial vacancy but the former outfielder declined the request, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reports (Twitter link).  Since retiring after the 2017 season, Beltran was interviewed for the Yankees’ managerial opening that eventually went to Aaron Boone, and had worked for the past season as a special advisor in the Yankees’ front office.  Beltran had long expressed interest in working in a front office and potentially even as a manager, though it isn’t known why he turned down the chance to speak with the Padres.
  • Given the links between Beltran and the Mets, Feinsand wonders if Beltran could potentially be a candidate to replace Mickey Callaway, though Olney feels Beltran “seems like a total long shot” to be the next Mets’ manager given some of the hard feelings that exist between he and the organization dating back to his playing days.  As per Joel Sherman of the New York Post, Beltran’s “relationship with [Mets] COO Jeff Wilpon is not good.”

Latest On Angels’ Managerial Vacancy

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Owner Arte Moreno, frustrated with the Angels’ fourth consecutive losing season, was the one who ultimately pushed for a managerial change, reports Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register. And although the timing of Brad Ausmus’ dismissal as Angels manager aligned rather conveniently with the news that Joe Maddon was out as Cubs manager, general manager Billy Eppler said in a conference call yesterday that Ausmus’ status was being debated even before the availability of other veteran candidates (i.e. Joe Maddon) was known.

Perhaps most interestingly, Fletcher adds that while there’s been heavy speculation about the Angels and Maddon, there had been no contact between the two sides as of Tuesday. Maddon wasn’t fired and is technically under contract with the Cubs through the end of October, although the Cubs organization clearly wouldn’t stand in the way of him talking with other teams at this point.

A lack of contact between the two sides certainly doesn’t mean that there won’t be any at all. To the contrary, it’d be a genuine surprise if Maddon didn’t emerge as a viable contender for the job. At the same time, the fact that the two sides haven’t even talked suggests that Maddon to the Angels perhaps isn’t set in stone. To that end, MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger lists Angels special assistant Eric Chavez, Astros bench coach Joe Espada and former Yankees manager Joe Girardi as possible candidates. Girardi, who publicly voiced a desire to return to the dugout just this morning, knows Eppler quite well from the pair’s days with the Yankees. Eppler, though, made clear yesterday that he needs to sit down with Moreno and team president John Carpino to formulate a list of interview candidates.

Furthermore, Eppler was emphatic in taking accountability for the Angels’ poor season. “I want to make it clear Brad is not solely responsible for the result of our season,” said the GM in yesterday’s call. “The majority of our short-term acquisitions that we made this past offseason did not produce to their forecast. And those failures lie with me.”

Indeed, the trio of Matt Harvey, Trevor Cahill and Cody Allen proved unproductive, although Eppler did make some shrewd pickups over the past year. Right-hander Hansel Robles has proven to be one of the more successful waiver claims in recent memory, and Eppler nabbed another waiver gem just prior to Opening Day when he claimed Brian Goodwin off release waivers from the Royals organization. Those additions might’ve provided some bright spots this season, but the team’s starting pitching situation remains bleak and will surely be an area of focus for the Angels as the offseason approaches.

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