Mike Bell. Don Kelly. Carlos Mendoza. James Rowson. Skip Schumaker. Luis Urueta. Will Venable.
That’s the list of candidates the Red Sox are known to have interviewed for their managerial opening. There may have been more, and there may still be more to come (including Dodgers first base coach George Lombard) once the World Series concludes.
But for now, those are the names we know. Five bench coaches, an “associate manager” (whatever that means) and a third-base coach. Seven men between the ages of 38 (once Venable celebrates his birthday on Thursday) and 45. Zero candidates with big-league managerial experience, time spent in the Red Sox' organization or previous time spent working with Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom.
I’m sure all seven known candidates are nice, qualified guys who would do a fine job replacing Ron Roenicke. But it’s hard to imagine any of them -- with little familiarity with Bloom or any of Boston’s other decision-makers -- doing enough in the course of a couple interviews to unseat Alex Cora as the favorite for the gig.
Cora, as has been well-documented, isn’t eligible to speak with the Red Sox (or anyone else) about a return to baseball until his one-year suspension concludes at the end of the World Series, so he hasn’t interviewed yet. But his success in Boston, rapport with the players and strong relationships with the Sox' ownership group have cast him as the heavy frontrunner, a figure lurking in the shadows even as the Red Sox hold interviews with candidates located everywhere from the Bronx to San Diego.
With any of those seven candidates, the Red Sox would be looking for their next version of Cora -- a bright, young mind with playing and coaching experience who might become a successful big-league manager. In that case, why not bring back the man himself?
Though it’s still unclear exactly how Bloom and his lieutenants on Jersey Street view Cora’s potential candidacy, one thing is clear: there’s no one available this fall who stands out as a legitimate, surefire upgrade.
Jason Varitek doesn’t seem to have a shot and the Sox don’t have a bench coach, so there don’t seem to be any strong internal candidates vying for the job. A group of successful, experienced managers -- including Mike Matheny, Dusty Baker, Joe Girardi and Joe Maddon -- were hired in last year’s cycle, leaving the cupboard bare for clubs looking for proven options. And perhaps the most likely path to someone other than Cora being hired has been extinguished, as Bloom reportedly can’t poach anyone from the Rays until Oct. 2021.
Both last winter and now, the two candidates who seemed to make the most sense for the Red Sox were Rays bench coach Matt Quatraro and Phillies player information coordinator Sam Fuld, who each knew Bloom from St. Petersburg. For the second straight cycle, neither seems to be involved in the process: Quatraro is disqualified because of the poaching agreement between the Sox and Rays and Fuld has previously rebuffed managerial inquiries and doesn’t seem to have budged on his position.
Of the known candidates, one wild card could be Urueta, the 39-year-old Diamondbacks bench coach who interviewed over the winter and was brought back for a second go-around this fall. (If the Red Sox want references on him, there are plenty of familiar folks in Arizona -- general manager Mike Hazen, assistant GMs Jared Porter and Amiel Sawdaye and manager Torey Lovullo among them -- to call.) Otherwise, the field is largely filled with coaches who are largely unknown to both the Red Sox and the baseball world at large.
Even if Bloom wants to bring in some new blood, would he really feel comfortable presenting a fresh, unproven face to John Henry and the ownership group? Though team president and CEO Sam Kennedy said in September that Bloom would make the ultimate decision on the next manager, Henry will obviously have a say and is known to be a huge fan of Cora.
The Red Sox' search may end up pitting seven strangers against the guy who, as of a year ago, looked like he had a chance to become one of the greatest managers in franchise history. It’s hard to envision one of those strangers beating out Cora for the job.
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