Earlier today, we ran down the latest managerial news including word that Rangers skipper Ron Washington's job is safe despite the club's disappointing finish. Here's the latest on vacancies from around the major leagues..
- While the Tigers and manager Jim Leyland will address his contract situation at the end of the year, the skipper confirmed today that he wants to continue managing, writes Jason Beck of MLB.com.
- Rockies senior vice president Bill Geivett told Jim Bowden (via Twitter) on MLB Network Radio that both bench coach Tom Runnells and Triple-A manager Stu Cole are internal candidates for their managerial job.
- As of now, former Astros skipper Brad Mills is not joining the Indians staff under Terry Francona, tweets Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe. Mills served as Francona's bench coach while with the Red Sox.
- Red Sox General Manager Ben Cherington declined to comment when asked if he has requested permission to interview candidates from other clubs, tweets Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe. Of course, there has been wide speculation that the Red Sox are interested in Blue Jays manager John Farrell.
- Mike Lowell told Rob Bradford of WEEI.com that he would want to know the "ins and outs" of an organization before taking on the role of manager. Yesterday, Lowell told Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com that he's not looking to become a big league manager at this point in time despite being linked to the Marlins job.
ChefR
The Red Sox are interested in Farrell?
UNDERTAKER1215
Ya because all the players really liked him, and he knows the organization, and plus he would have better pieces than Toronto has, except for a few players like Romero, Morrow, Lawrie, Rasmus, and Bautista.
I personally would rather have a guy like Varitek manage the Sox, I think he would be a great manager, he was already the captain, he player there for 15 years, knows mostly everyone, and he would fight for any of the players, perfect fit. Get it done Sox.
john12121212
As the jays fan I am, rasmus? No thanks.
$22264602
You include Rasmus but not Encarnacion? Blasphemy
UNDERTAKER1215
forgot about Encarnacion, sorry
burnboll
No problem bro, he’s a one hit wonder!
go_jays_go
I wouldn’t dismiss him as a one-hit-wonder. Going forward, you can expect 30 HR annually from this guy. I remember 2009 when EE hit 21 HR in 91 games. Hopefully he won’t be Adam Lind version 2.0.
burnboll
It was a little bit in jest. Eddy has a lot of tools. Adam Lind needs to be traded to the Angels LOL.
suhiscrazierthanyou
just like Bautista was, right? and there are a lot of similarities to their rise
burnboll
I already stated it was something I wrote a little in jest.
burnboll
So pretty much the whole ball club in Toronto is better, the farm system is better, again, tell me why would Farrell wanna go to Boston?
Honestly, I think Farrell may very well go to Boston, but please don’t say it’s because the ballclub is better, because that’s just not true.
Toronto has a really potent lineup, only real weakness is Adam Lind.
Who’s still not worse than James Loney.
Boston has… what?
Pidey, a guy with questionable loyalty, and Jacoby Ellsbury, a talented, albeit injury ridden player.
Then they have David Ortiz, very talented, but terribly one dimensional.
I set the odds of Farrell going to Boston at about 70%. But it sure aint about Boston being BETTER.
Cause they aint.
UNDERTAKER1215
I don’t mean that compared to the Jays the Sox are an all-star team, I meant that both teams have their holes, but what one team doesn’t have, the other team does. Pedroia is always consistent except for minor cold streaks that everyone gets, Salty who can kill the ball, but only when he actually hits it, Middlebrooks who is a future all-star, but happened to get injured, Aviles who did pretty good for us this year, Ellsbury who is still good, Ross who was the steal of the offseason, and a pitching rotation who only had 2 decent starters all season (Felix and Clay). I think in the next few years, Toronto will be a playoff team for sure.
Overall, the compared to Valentine, Farrell is the manager of the year.
burnboll
Toronto have a good chance of going to the playoffs, but AL being a very tough division, the chance is also they’ll not make it. They however have the best farm system of the division, and still a reasonably young roster.
So yeah, good chance. But Red Sox, Yanks and now the O’s, it’s gonna be real tough.
What the Red Sox did great, was that they got rid of the cancers on the team, and basically are only stuck with Lackey, who could be traded to his pal Scioscia, hopefully.
Realistically, Red Sox could have a winning season already next year, but doubt they’ll be in the playoffs. 2014 and 2015 is when you should start seeing some real results. The main problem for Cherington, who’s done a wonderful job so far, are the expectations of being perennial contenders.
Perhaps Cherington should’ve pursued the mega trade earlier and been more straight up with the fan base in the early spring, that the organisation was shot to pieces by Theo and needed some restructuring badly, which would take at least 2-3 years.
go_jays_go
The Reddick deal and the Lowrie deal were just bad. plain bad, especially considering that he only got relief pitchers in return.
I remember at the trade deadline, everyone was pissed that GM AA only managed to grab relief pitchers for Snider and Thames, but it’s not nearly as bad as the Reddick or Lowrie deal.
The Lars Anderson / Steven Wright looks like it might pay future dividends.
The LAD megadeal was also good
So far he gets a B.
start_wearing_purple
I look at the Reddick and Lowrie deals and they tend to remind me of all the comments from non-Red Sox fans. I remember reading before about how Reddick would never be more than a 4th outfielder and Lowrie would get almost nothing in return in a trade.
That said, the trades on paper were ok in theory. The Red Sox bullpen was in shambles so Cherington traded for 2 guys who were supposed to fix the problem. That failed.
Cherington did have a tough year but ultimately the Dodgers megadeal was huge and the truth is it’s basically cleared the slate for Cherington to put his own mark on the team, so I’m eager to see what he’ll do.
Leonard Washington
Exactly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love this comment. So true. Most sox fans knew we were giving up solid players in both Lowrie and Reddick, but the opposing fan bases sat there acting like they were short changed. Funny how it works huh. Now they are acting like the Sox didn’t know they were giving up good players.
UNDERTAKER1215
I think the Reddick deal was actually a decent trade, because Bailey actually pitched very well at the end of the season, and Sweeney was hitting well (minus the power) until he injured himself, but Reddick just didn’t seem to fit in Fenway and with the Sox. Reddick seems to fit in Oakland okay, so that deal seems to be kinda a win win.
Now, the Lowrie deal actually seemed to even out later on, as Weiland was injured all season, and Lowrie was hot like he was with the Sox at times, but then got injured, like he did with the Sox, but Melancon didn’t do too much out of the pen, so those player cancel each other out, I think anways.
Overall though, Cherington has done a very good job, considering he took over for Theo as well as the mess he left him, I think he knows what he’s doing.
Oh yeah, that Cody Ross signing, turned out to be the steal of free agency.
go_jays_go
How can you so delusional about the Reddick and Lowrie trades?
The reality is that the Red Sox were just lazy and impatient.
In 2011, with 88 games played, Reddick hit .280/.327/.457 with the Red Sox. Just as he was showing sign of improvement, he was abandonded. Claiming that ‘Reddick just didn’t seem to fit in Fenway and with the Sox’ is a very lame excuse.
Also look at Bailey’s Splits
– Aug. IP 5.1, ERA 1.69, FIP 2.72 –> Earned Runs Allowed 1
– Sept: IP 10, ERA 9.90, FIP 5.49 –> Earned Runs Allowed 11
These splits are awful. Bailey got worse as the season progressed.
To add insult to injury, Reddick is a key contributor to Oakland’s success AND he still has 4 more years of team control. Meanwhile Bailey and Sweeney have been injured and largely ineffective, and they each only have 2 years of team control…
Oakland easily gets an A
Boston gets a D
Don’t kid yourself. The Athletics won the trade and the Red Sox lost by a long shot.
The Lowrie trade falls under similar scrutiny, but is not nearly as severe. But it is still easily a Win for the Astros and a Lose for Red Sox.
Now, I’m not saying Cherington is a bad GM. I gave him a B rating. But trying to defend Cherington from the Reddick and Lowrie trades is ridiculous.
Jaysfan724
If I could write a movie script for the Red Sox pursuit of John Farrell it would end with a plot twist of Cito Gaston going over to the Sox to manage. Either that or every candidate dies and they are then stuck with Mo Vaughn to manage.
Slopeboy
Sounds more like a Red Sox reality show than a movie plot.
start_wearing_purple
At this point we’re leaving reality show and moving towards soap opera.
Slopeboy
Ha!, Too funny!
User 4245925809
I think they should just hire Don Zimmer back for 1 season, if no other reason? Each generation get to see a truly lousy decision maker in the Boston dugout. He makes Valentine look like a genius,
start_wearing_purple
Still can’t beat Grady Little’s worst decision.
User 4245925809
LOL. I dunno.. Zimmer took out (single handedly) two of the best teams in baseball from the last 50 years (77-78 Red Sox) and managed to make sure neither didn’t even make the PO, including one that had a 10 game lead, 4 future HOF regulars and 7 All Stars.
Little at least managed to get the team into the post season..
Edit:
Both teams had 4 regular HOF members.. I forgot Fegie jenkins was still on that 77 team and threw almost 200IP.. Man was Zimmer brutal 🙁
suhiscrazierthanyou
redsox are a reality show
burnboll
I heard Albert Belle offered himself as a manager for Cleveland. He’d be awesome in Boston. Could you imagine him throwing baseballs at pitchers AND fans? “Kegparty at Joeys!”
$17049574
Still a better love story than Twilight.
burnboll
Lowell has the right attitude, will be a manager in short time. Look for him to get the job as a bench manager with a medium sized team, and next year get the promotion to manager.
Leonard Washington
Its typically not that quick, but looking at Ventura, and Matheny makes me think its possible.
burnboll
If you’d asked me a year ago, I’d say Lowell would’ve had to take the Ryne Sandberg route. But he seems to have a humble attitude towards the job, and wanting to learn, which I think indicates he’s actually gonna end up with the main gig real soon.
Leonard Washington
Probably should just go after Lavollo seeing as he is well thought of by the club and by Cherington, and the fact that he will cost nothing to hire.
Timothy P. Ramirez
Only way Leyland should come back is if he wins nine more games.
Tko11
It is really annoying and in my opinion dumb that teams are willing to give up compensation (no matter what the compensation is) in return for a coach. Is there not enough candidates out there? The Red Sox have at least ten good candidates they can pursue.