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Latest On Pirates’ Managerial Search, Front Office

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The acquisition of a new club manager promises to be the first order of business on the schedule of new Pirates GM Ben Cherington, but it appears as if the Pittsburgh exec may be given a bit of a running start from an HR perspective. Cherington is apparently happy with the work done by Pittsburgh staffers in search of a manager to this point and may simply re-interview several of the club’s existing candidates, according to a tweet from Jon Heyman of MLB Network (link).

The Pirates reportedly interviewed Twins bench coach Derek Shelton, Cardinals first base coach Stubby Clapp, Dodgers first base coach George Lombard, Athletics bench coach Ryan Christenson, and Rays bench coach Matt Quatraro for the job earlier in the offseason before their search was “paused” with the ouster of former GM Neal Huntington. Interestingly, Heyman also indicated that Pirates bench coach Jeff Banister, former Pirates third base coach Joey Cora, and Athletics quality control coach Mark Kotsay also interviewed with the club this offseason. Cora’s name is a new entry into public knowledge of the proceedings; Bannister and Kotsay were know to be under some consideration, but it wasn’t clear whether they had interviewed.

Besides being a former player and the older brother to Red Sox manager Alex Cora, the 54-year-old Cora carries previous experience as the manager of Pittsburgh’s Double-A affiliate in 2016. He has served as the club’s major league third base coach and infield coach since being hired in advance of the 2017 season. Bannister would also represent something of a familiar face to Pittsburgh fans, as the former Rangers manager has recently served the club in both bench coach and special advisor capacities.

If familiarity is key to Cherington’s hiring process, however, it may appear that Kotsay and Shelton would have something of an advantage. Kotsay spent time as a player with the Red Sox when Cherington was a Boston exec from 2008 to 2009, while Shelton was a coach with Toronto in 2017 while Cherington was a Jays VP. Further helping matters for Kotsay and Shelton may be Heyman’s indication that both were among those to interview “very well” for Pittsburgh’s managerial opening earlier this offseason (link).

Regardless of which direction the club goes with regard to their managerial search, it appears that Cherington will be doing so without the aid of Kyle Stark, who was relieved of his post as assistant GM today. The club’s announcement of Stark’s exit continues a general house cleaning that has followed a rather bizarre 69-93 campaign in the Steel City. Stark, who had served as the club’s assistant GM since 2007, will join Huntington, former team president Frank Coonelly, and former manager Clint Hurdle as a recent departee of the Pittsburgh organization.

GM/Coaching Notes: Pirates, Cubs, Mets, Tigers, ChiSox

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Blue Jays vice president of baseball operations Ben Cherington and Brewers assistant general manager Matt Arnold will get second interviews this week for the Pirates’ GM vacancy, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network and reporter Robert Murray. Cherington and Arnold are reportedly two of three finalists to take over in Pittsburgh. Pirates assistant GM Kevan Graves seems to be competing with them, as Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic tweets that he also appears likely to receive another interview. Meanwhile, even though the Pirates technically don’t have a GM right now, they’re also carrying on their search for a manager. Twins bench coach Derek Shelton has been particularly impressive to the club thus far, Heyman relays.

More staff news from around baseball…

  • Cubs first base coach Will Venable has been popular in managerial searches in recent weeks. The Cubs discussed their job with Venable prior to their David Ross hiring, and he also sat down with the Giants in regards to their position before they selected Gabe Kapler. Now that Venable’s not going to land a managerial job this offseason (unless Pittsburgh pursues him), the former major league outfielder will stay where he is. He’ll be one of the Cubs’ base coaches in 2020, Bruce Levine of 670 The Score tweets. The Cubs have at least one opening for those positions, as third base coach Brian Butterfield left to take the same role with the Angels.
  • The Mets are closing in on a deal to retain hitting coach Chili Davis, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets.  The former big league slugger is fresh off his first year with the Mets, whose offense made strides on his watch. Davis helped the club to the majors’ 13th-most runs and its seventh-highest wRC+ (104).
  • The Tigers have hired Josh Paul as their quality control coach, the team announced. Paul served as the the Angels’ bench coach over the previous three years, but the Halos fired him after this season. The 44-year-old Paul was previously a major league catcher and then a well-regarded assistant in the Yankees organization.
  • Nationals assistant hitting coach Joe Dillon is a legitimate candidate to become the Phillies’ hitting coach, Heyman suggests. Dillon has been working under Nats hitting coach Kevin Long, who’s a favorite of new Phillies manager Joe Girardi, as Heyman points out. Long was the Yankees’ hitting coach for part of Girardi’s tenure as their manager. Dillon, meanwhile, is an ex-major league infielder/outfielder who has two years’ experience as a coach at the game’s highest level.
  • Scott Coolbaugh is the White Sox’s new assistant hitting coach, the club announced. Coolbaugh was the Orioles’ hitting coach from 2015-18 and the Dodgers’ Triple-A hitting coach this season. He’ll team with White Sox new HC Frank Menechino in his new role.

Pirates Notes: GM And Manager Search

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The Pirates found themselves in an awkward position when the organization fired general manager Neal Huntington, who had already begun his search for the team’s next manager after Clint Hurdle was fired on the last day of the season. The staggered firings halted the managerial search while introducing the possibility that the next GM would want to take the search in a new direction.

Since a number of candidates have already interviewed to be Hurdle’s replacement, the team won’t necessarily be starting over once a new GM is hired, but the new head of baseball ops will seemingly be somewhat limited in his or her capacity to drive the hiring process. With all that said, Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette suggests that of the group that has already interviewed, Derek Shelton, Mark Kotsay, and Jeff Banister had emerged as the favorites, though it’s hard to tab anyone a real frontrunner at this point without a GM steering the ship.

Nine names have been linked to the Pirates’ search thus far, though beyond the organization’s change of direction, at least some of these candidates could already be out of consideration.  Astros bench coach Joe Espada is reportedly one of the finalists to be the Giants’ next skipper, while the Athletics have already announced that bench coach Ryan Christenson and quality control coach Kotsay will be back on next season’s staff.  While that announcement wouldn’t preclude Christenson or Kotsay from a future Pirates hiring, it was noted that Kotsay was no longer a candidate for the Giants’ job.

Interviews with GM candidates will begin this week, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports (Twitter link), and we should soon start to hear concrete details about names under consideration.  The likes of former Red Sox and Orioles GM Dan Duquette, Brewers assistant GM Matt Arnold, Blue Jays senior VP Tony LaCava, Yankees scout Marc DelPiano have already been mentioned as speculative candidates.

Mets Reportedly Narrow Managerial Search

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The Mets’ managerial search is down to two names, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reports (via Twitter). Former Mets outfielder Carlos Beltran and former Astros bench coach/current ESPN analyst Eduardo Perez are the last two men standing. MLB Network’s Jon Heyman recently tweeted that Milwaukee bench coach Pat Murphy was out of the running, though Heyman suggested shortly before Feinsand that Twins bench coach Derek Shelton was still involved alongside Beltran and Perez.

Neither Beltran nor Perez has any big league managerial experience, but Perez did manage a pair of winter ball clubs in Puerto Rico and managed Team Colombia in the 2013 World Baseball Classic. In addition to a brief stint as the bench coach in Houston, Perez spent a pair of seasons as the Marlins’ hitting coach earlier this decade. Beltran, who only retired as a player after the 2017 season, has spent his short post-playing days as a special advisor to Yankees general manager Brian Cashman.

Hiring Perez would, in many ways, mimic the crosstown Yankees’ hiring of Aaron Boone and the Cubs’ recent hiring of David Ross. Both were retired players hired away from ESPN jobs, though Perez, unlike that duo, does have the aforementioned coaching/managing experience. Beltran, notably, would jump from player to manager even more quickly than Ross did — if he is indeed hired. Ross retired after winning a World Series in 2016, while Beltran retired after winning a World Series in 2017. Perez was reported by USA Today’s Bob Nightengale last week to be the “clear front-runner,” but the search then carried on into a third round of interviews.

The Mets’ managerial search has dragged out even longer than the GM search that led the organization to hire then-CAA-agent Brodie Van Wagenen late last October. While a whopping eight teams entered the offseason in search of a new skipper, most identified a smaller set of initial candidates than New York. The Mets, meanwhile, not only conducted first-round interviews with a wide slate of candidates, they also carried a significant list of hopefuls all the way into a third round of interviews. (Most other organizations seemingly only went through two rounds.) At least five candidates — Perez, Beltran, Shelton, Murphy and Nats first base coach Tim Bogar — seemingly advanced to this stage.

The Mets, Pirates and Giants are the three remaining clubs that have yet to name a manager for the 2020 season. The Angels (Joe Maddon), Phillies (Joe Girardi), Cubs (Ross), Royals (Mike Matheny) and Padres (Jayce Tingler) have all hired new skippers since the regular season ended.

Mets Holding Third Round Of Managerial Interviews

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The Mets are moving ahead with a third round of managerial interviews, as Andy Martino of SNY.tv reported last night. Somewhat surprisingly, the list hasn’t really been pared down much to this point.

In for a third interview are long-known candidates Carlos Beltran, Tim Bogar, and Derek Shelton. (Joel Sherman of the New York Post noted Shelton’s continued inclusion on Twitter.) Also still in the mix is Eduardo Perez, who was said to be a “clear frontrunner” just days ago but remains in a large group of possibilities.

Luis Rojas once seemed to have a solid shot at the gig, but he now appears to be out of the mix. But Brewers bench coach Pat Murphy has taken his place after flying under the radar earlier in the process. Murphy is still in the hunt as well.

Now that Murphy has been unveiled, is there still a mystery candidate lurking? Martino has continually cited that possibility, though MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo tweets that it seems the field has been set.

New York owner Fred Wilpon will meet with the five candidates — and, presumably, any others if they should be inserted into the process. Precisely how the decision will be made remains to be seen, though surely it’ll mostly come down to a discussion between Wilpon, COO Jeff Wilpon, GM Brodie Van Wagenen, and a few top advisors.

The timeline is likewise not yet evident; DiComo suggests that it may take a bit longer due to the fact that Bogar still has one or two games left to coach in the World Series. It doesn’t appear as if any of the Mets’ candidates are in active demand from other organizations, so the New York club can continue to take its time reaching a final decision.

Mets Notes: Managerial Search, Wheeler

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The Mets have begun narrowing the field in their managerial search, as Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports that neither Padres first base coach Skip Schumaker nor D-backs director of player development Mike Bell will receive a second interview. Joe Girardi, Eduardo Perez, Carlos Beltran, Mets quality control coach Luis Rojas, Nationals first base coach Tim Bogar and Twins bench coach Derek Shelton are all in line for second-round interviews in the near future. New York’s search doesn’t appear to be as far along as that of the Phillies, who are reportedly down to three veteran candidates with Girardi reported to be in the lead. The Phils could make Girardi an offer well before the Mets’ search is near completion, which would further narrow the field but remove a prominent contender for the position.

Meanwhile, Newsday’s David Lennon explores the lack of clarity in the Mets’ search, opining that it’s strange that an organization that has likely expected to be seeking a new skipper since midseason would still be so uncertain regarding the qualities it hopes to find in a new manager. The Mets have indeed interviewed a rather wide-reaching slate of candidates, and the remaining group is fairly eclectic without a clear front-runner.

Here’s more out of Queens…

  • Everyone loves a “mystery team” in free agency, but how about a “mystery candidate” in a managerial search? Both MLB Network’s Jon Heyman and SNY’s Andy Martino suggested the that a “bombshell” candidate is in the mix if none of the presently known options distinguishes himself (Twitter links). That only furthers the notion that the Wilpon family isn’t sure what type of skipper they’re seeking. Speculation and or eye-rolls will surely abound, though both Heyman and Martino both ruled out David Wright, while Heyman adds that Alex Rodriguez could only laugh when asked about the possibility. MLBTR’s Connor Byrne put his money on Benny Agbayani, and I’m calling that the Mets double down on their Brodie Van Wagenen investment and make him the manager as well (kidding … mostly).
  • Turning to the Mets’ actual roster, The Athletic’s Tim Britton explores Zack Wheeler’s impending free agency and whether he’s a fit to re-sign with the team in free agency (subscription link). The call on issuing Wheeler a qualifying offer is an easy “yes,” he opines — we at MLBTR are inclined to agree — as is Wheeler’s decision to reject it. As MLBTR’s Jeff Todd recently laid out, the Mets not only lack flexibility but are actually on pace to spend more on the current roster than they did in 2019. Britton notes that the Mets would need to be OK with surpassing or at least flirting with the luxury tax in order to re-sign Wheeler, though he contends that with Wright, Yoenis Cespedes, Jed Lowrie and Wilson Ramos all off the books following the 2020 season (to say nothing of Justin Wilson and Marcus Stroman), surpassing the luxury threshold would be justifiable for a win-now Mets club. Of course, despite playing in New York, the Mets haven’t crossed that line before and have not carried an Opening Day payroll greater than this season’s $158.5MM mark.

Pirates To Interview Derek Shelton For Managerial Opening

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The Pirates are set to interview Twins bench coach Derek Shelton this week for their managerial vacancy, reports LaVelle Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. We’d heard of Pittsburgh’s interest in Shelton, but all that was previously known was that Rocco Baldelli’s right-hand man had popped up on the Bucs’ radar. Shelton becomes the second known candidate to take the next step of interviewing with the Pirates, joining A’s bench coach Ryan Christenson.

Shelton, 49, joins the 45-year-old Christenson as younger candidates to replace 62-year-old Clint Hurdle, who was fired at the end of the season. Neither Shelton nor Christenson has managed at the big league level before, although each has MLB coaching experience with successful small-market clubs, so perhaps there’s a thread emerging in the Bucs’ candidates. Shelton has been bench coach in Minnesota for two years, surviving the transition from Paul Molitor to Baldelli last offseason. Indeed, Shelton was on the radar for the head Twins’ position himself, although he ultimately elected to stay in Minneapolis after Baldelli got the job instead.

Shelton is also slated to interview for the Mets’ managerial job this week. In addition to bench coaching, he’s got big league experience as a hitting coach, having served in that role in Cleveland and Tampa Bay for a decade. He does have some managerial experience as well, albeit at the lowest levels of the minors. Shelton managed three seasons in the Yankees’ farm system at the beginning of the century, although he’s quite a bit removed from his last time running a dugout.

You can track all of the managerial rumors and interviews around baseball here.

Latest On Pirates’ Managerial Search

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In what has perhaps been baseball’s most nebulous search for a new manager, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets some context on the Pirates’ hunt for Clint Hurdle’s replacement. Diamondbacks vice president of player development Mike Bell and Phillies player information coordinator Sam Fuld are both of interest to the Pirates. To be clear, though, there’s no indication that either will sit down for an interview, but the organization’s interest in each of some note. Add those two names to a list that also includes Twins bench coach Derek Shelton and former Rangers skipper Jeff Banister, both of whom were previously known to be in consideration.

Both Bell and Fuld have been tied to managerial openings in the past, and Bell is currently reported to be a candidate with the Mets as well. Fuld is just 37 years old and played in the Majors as recently as 2015. He’s been in his current position in Philadelphia since late 2017, serving as a sort of liaison between the front office and players. In that sense, he seems to fit the mold of the industry’s ideal manager in 2019: young, inexperienced, analytically-inclined, a good communicator, and relatively cheap to boot. Fuld earned an interview last offseason with the Blue Jays, with The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reporting at the time that the young Fuld “made a strong impression” on Toronto brass, though he ultimately withdrew his name from consideration.

Bell, meanwhile, will be recognized for his roots in a distinguished baseball family: his father Buddy Bell enjoyed a fine playing and managing career, while Mike’s brother David manages the Pirates’ division-rival Reds. He interviewed with the Orioles and Rangers last offseason, so teams have been eyeing him for a bit now. Bell has been with the Diamondbacks for more than a decade, previously serving as the director of player development before he was promoted to his current role three years ago. As such, he can claim at least some of the credit for the homegrown talent that has climbed through the Arizona ranks in recent years.

It would seem that the Pirates are considering a wide variety of candidates to be the franchise’s first new manager since 2011; the organization doesn’t appear to be confining its search to a particular archetype or background, which could pay off as the team also seeks to fill out the remainder of the coaching staff. That seems a fair approach for a team that hasn’t had to undergo a managerial change in nearly a decade, especially considering the scrutiny under which general manager Neal Huntington has found himself of late. Pittsburgh is home to what may be the Majors’ most confounding managerial vacancy, with relatively little being reported regarding the organization’s hiring process. As details emerge, though, the Pirates job will certainly offer its fair share of intrigue to this offseason’s storylines.

Mets Begin In-Person Managerial Interviews

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The Mets have launched their first round of managerial interviews. Carlos Beltran appears to have been the first candidate to sit down with the front office, with Andy Martino of SNY.tv reporting (Twitter links) that the sides met yesterday.

It’s a mite surprising to see Beltran jump to the front of the interview list, though it stands to reason that the Mets had to fit him in wherever they could with Beltran actively engaged with the Yankees’ postseason efforts. The future Hall-of-Famer doesn’t have any prior coaching or managerial experience but certainly knows his way around a big-league dugout. Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweeted earlier today that Beltran is seen as a “very serious” candidate for the job.

Other candidates will obviously follow Beltran into the offices in Queens. Derek Shelton, Joe Girardi, and Mike Bell are already known to be lined up for interviews. All three are said to be scheduled for next week.

It’s too soon to declare this a four-man race. Mets quality control coach Luis Rojas will get an interview, per MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo (via Twitter). The son of long-time former skipper Felipe Alou, Rojas joined the New York organization’s MLB staff last season under just-canned manager Mickey Callaway.

There could be yet more candidates to come. GM Brodie Van Wagenen is also chatting with other persons of interest via phone, Martino adds. The soon-to-be-sophomore exec is working through a “big list” of names. Martino tweets that John Gibbons, Dusty Baker, and Buck Showalter have all been “discussed internally” but “not contacted” to this point.

Mets Will Interview Twins Bench Coach Derek Shelton

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Oct. 10: Shelton’s interview will be an in-person sitdown next week, Sherman tweets.

Oct. 9: Twins bench coach Derek Shelton has emerged as a name to watch in the Mets’ search for a manager. The club has received permission to speak with Shelton, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, though he notes it’s unclear whether the two sides will meet for a face-to-face interview. New York is reportedly doing some due diligence on candidates and won’t bring everyone to town for an in-person interview.

Shelton’s the fourth potential candidate to come to the fore today for the Mets, who will discuss the job with former major league manager Joe Girardi, ex-outfielder Carlos Beltran and current Diamondbacks vice president of player development Mike Bell as they seek a replacement for Mickey Callaway. Like Beltran and Bell, Shelton has no managerial experience at the big league level. However, the former minor league catcher did manage in the Yankees’ farm system several years back, and he has established himself as a well-regarded MLB assistant in more recent seasons.

The 49-year-old Shelton held important roles with the Indians, Rays and Blue Jays before joining the Twins prior to 2018. He worked under Paul Molitor that year before serving as rookie manager Rocco Baldelli’s right-hand man during an AL Central-winning campaign this season. Shelton interviewed for the job before the Twins selected Baldelli, and it seems he’s lining up as a popular candidate for teams that are currently searching for a manager. Shelton has also been connected to the Pirates, with “possibly others” in the mix for his services, per Sherman.

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