According to Boston Red Sox General Manager Ben Cherrington the team has concluded its interviews for the open managers slot. Cherrington 
and his staff talked with five people of various backgrounds and experience, some who have worked for the team in the past but none from the staff of deposed manager Terry Francona.
So let’s take a look at the candidates. This is an unbiased look; it’s just the facts with no commentary. They are listed in the order they were interviewed in and at the end I’ll tell you who I think that Cherrington and the ownership pick from and the guy I feel they will select. I’ll also get into a bit on building a new coaching staff around the new manager of the Boston Red Sox.
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Pete Mackanin, 60, is a native of Chicago IL and a former infielder who played with the Texas Rangers, Montreal Expos, Philadelphia Phillies and Minnesota Twins from 1973-81.
He has been a bench coach for the Pittsburgh Pirates (2003-05) and currently holds that position for the Philadelphia Phillies (2009-present). Twice Mackanin has been called upon to be an interim manager having guided the Pirates in 2005 and the Cincinnati Reds in 2007. He has not played or coached for a World Series winner.
Mackanin has also been a third base coach for the Expos, in addition to being a scout and a long time minor league manager. He has managed the Peoria Chiefs (1985-86); Iowa Cubs (1988-89); Nashville Sounds (1990-92); Frederick Keys (1993); Bowie Baysox (1994); Ottawa Lynx (1995-96); Hickory Crawdads (2001); Lynchburg Hillcats (2002) and GCL Pirates (2006).
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Dale Sveum, 48, is a Richmond CA native and was an infielder with the Milwaukee Brewers, Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago White Sox, Oakland A’s, Seattle Mariners, Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Yankees from 1986-99. His cousin is former Red Sox first baseman John Olerud. He has played for (1998 New York Yankees) and coached (2004 Boston Red Sox) teams that have won a World Series title.
He has been a third base coach for the Boston Red Sox (2004-05) and the Milwaukee Brewers, as well as bench coach and currently is the hitting coach for the Brew Crew (2006-present). He also was the Brewers interim manager in September 2008 getting them into the playoffs as the NL Wildcard where they lost in four games to the eventual World Series champion, Philadelphia Phillies.
Sveum, in addition to his major league coaching experience, has managed in the minors with the Altoona Curve in 2001-03 and was voted the Eastern League’s Top Managerial Prospect by Baseball America in 2003.
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Sandy Alomar, Jr., 45, is a native of Puerto Rico and former catcher for the San Diego Padres, Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox, Colorado Rockies, Texas Rangers, Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets from 1998-2007. He is the son of former major leaguer Sandy Alomar and the brother of Hall of Fame second baseman Roberto Alomar.
Alomar, who was a 6-time All-Star, was also the 1990 AL Rookie of the Year and the 1997 All-Star Game MVP. He has never played for or coached with a World Series winner.
He has been a coaching instructor for the Mets (2008-09) and first base coach for the Indians (2009-present) and is scheduled to be the teams bench coach in 2012. In 2010 he was a finalist for the Toronto Blue Jays managerial job and in addition to the Red Sox he is also a candidate for manager of the Chicago Cubs.
He has no minor or major league managing experience.
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Torey Lovullo, 46, is a native of Santa Monica CA and is a former infielder for the Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, California Angels, Seattle Mariners, Oakland A’s, Cleveland Indians and Philadelphia Phillies from 1988-2000. He also played in Japan for the Yakult Swallows. His father was a television producer who worked on “Hee Haw”.
Lovullo has extensive minor league managing experience, nearly all of it in the Cleveland Indians organization and one season as the manager of the Pawtucket Red Sox in 2010. He is currently the first base coach on John Farrell’s staff with the Toronto Blue Jays. He never played for or coached with a World Series winning team.
He has been a candidate in the past for managing jobs with the Los Angeles Dodgers (2006), Pittsburgh Pirates (2007) and Cleveland Indians (2009).
In addition to Pawtucket since 2001 he has managed the Kinston Indians, Akron Aeros, Buffalo Bison and Columbus Clippers.
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Gene Lamont, 65, is a Rockford IL native and a former catcher for the Detroit Tigers from 1970-75. He has never played for or coached with a World Series winner.
He has extensive managing and coaching experience at both the major and minor league levels having led the Chicago White Sox (1992-95) and the Pittsburgh Pirates (1997-2000). He was the 1993 AL Manager of the Year with the White Sox.
He has also managed in the minors with the Ft Myers Royals (1978-79), Jacksonville Suns (1980-83), Omaha Royals (1984-85) and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (2005). He has been the Pirates third base coach (1986-91) and bench coach (1996), third base coach for the Boston Red Sox (2001) and Houston Astros (2002-04) and is currently the third base coach for the Detroit Tigers (2006-present).
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So there are the candidates. The way I see it, I agree with the Boston media that Lamont was brought in to see if he wasn’t a manager if he’d be willing to the be the bench coach for a new manager. Lamont certainly has a ton of experience and would be a great bench coach for a guy in his first major league managing job.
Alomar, who has a lot of potential, is just too green right now for the spot. I hate to say it because Sandy was one of my favorite players and for the fact that someday he will manage at the MLB level. I hope he and the team took something away from his interview and he wasn’t just a minority candidate.
Mackanin, I feel may be the guy Theo Epstein tabs in Chicago to lead the Cubs. He’s a Chicago guy, he’s a National League guy, he is smart and he accepts the entire front office being involved together concept that baseball is going to these days. I think he’d have been a good manger in Boston as well but my gut says he will be the Cubs manager in 2012.
That brings us to two, Blue Jays first base coach Torey Lovullo and Brewers hitting coach Dale Sveum, both who have familiarity with the Boston organization. Both are the type of manager that John Henry, Tom Werner, Larry Lucchino and Cherrington would want in the dug out. Both are relatively young, they think with the modern progressive way of baseball and they are both highly respected through out baseball.
I think this is going to be a difficult choice for the front office. Sveum earned rave reviews from Red Sox players when he was here as being very smart and in tune to the game, despite what fans thought of his aggressive coaching at third base. While Lovullo has more hands on managing experience and was previously with an organization in Cleveland that is similar to Boston in how things are run. He also comes with John Farrell’s stamp of approval.
While in my eyes the Red Sox can not go wrong with either candidate, I believe it is Torey Lovullo who will be the next manager of the Boston Red Sox.
Now to support Lovullo you need a good staff around him. I think it’s best for the team if they keep hitting coach Dave Magadan and bullpen coach/catching instructor Gary Tuck and clear out the rest of the remaining staff from Francona’s reign.
The team needs a pitching coach seeing as the whole Curt Young thing didn’t work and he returned to Oakland. I’d love to see them grab Dave Duncan away from St. Louis but with his wife’s current health issues that won’t happen. So I have two candidates and both are currently not active in the game. Ron Darling and Orel Hershisher.
Both Darling and Hershisher have earned rave reviews in their work as baseball analysts on a national level. How did they do that? Besides being able to communicate coherently they base their observations on what they know. Pitching. Pure and simple, listen to these guys talk about pitching and you’re sold. Both also bring something to the table in that they’ve both played the game and both have had success. I say get one and get that mess straightened out.
Some names you could hear as pitching coach candidates include Chicago White Sox bullpen coach Juan Nieves, Seattle Mariners bullpen coach Jaime Navarro and Texas Rangers bullpen coach Andy Hawkins. Others may include Toronto Blue Jays bullpen coach Pat Hentgen, Colorado pitching coach Bob Apodaka, St. Louis Cardinals bullpen coach Derek Lilliquist and Miami Marlins pitching coach Randy St. Clair. There are in house possibilities as well in Pawtucket pitching coach Rick Sauveur and Portland pitching coach Bob Kipper.
The bench coach is another important position for a manager these days. In my scenario of the Sox hiring Lovullo, who has nearly a decade as a minor league manager, that experience level isn’t so much as necessary and you can find a bench coach with managing experience at any league level. You want a second set of eyes who views the game much along the same way you do but is also willing to offer a counter opinion.
If Lamont didn’t want the job due to loyalty to Detroit manager Jim Leyland there are others out there who would make a good bench coach. Among them are former Baltimore Orioles manager Dave Trembley, Nick Leyva, who managed the Philadelphia Phillies, former Seattle Mariners and Washington Nationals manager John McLaren and Baltimore Orioles third base coach and former Pittsburgh Pirates manager John Russell.
As for base coaches I think it’s a matter of getting the right guys no matter their experience. A third base coach needs to know the players and park and always be aware of the game situation something that at times in the past in appeared Tim Bogar was not. A first base coach generally is the base running coach too and he keeps the base runner’s attention on the pitcher and the any possible scenarios he could see.
I’d like to see the Sox hire Alex Cora and/or Gabe Kapler for at least one of the base coaching positions. Cora would be the third base coach and infield instructor and would be a nice conduit to the Latin players. He is smart and really understands the game and some day will be a major league manager. Kapler would be the first base coach, outfield instructor and base running coach. As former players recently retired they would relate well with the players and be the go between from the coaching staff to the clubhouse. They would also add a little intensity when it was needed something that was lacking in 2011.
The biggest decision though is forth coming. In the next two weeks or so the Red Sox will hire their new manager. I think Lovullo is the right choice for the job and it’s time to start building him a staff and a team so we can erase the memory of a terrible end to what was supposed to be a great season.
Follow Steve on Twitter @djstevem
Photo credit: Getty Images
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