The Diamondbacks opened their managerial search on Monday, interviewing internal candidate Andy Green, the manager of their Double-A affiliate, the Mobile Bay Bears, according to Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic.
Phil Nevin, Jim Tracy, Joe McEwing among Diamondbacks managerial candidates
The Diamondbacks have cast a wide net when it comes to their managerial opening.
Kelley L Cox-US PRESSWIRE
Green is one of eight candidates the club has confirmed for the managerial opening, including two other internal candidates: Triple-A Manager Phil Nevin, and hitting coach Turner Ward. The external candidates are Sandy Alomar Jr., Jay Bell, Jim Tracy, Royal bench coach Don Wakamatsu, and White Sox third base coach Joe McEwing.
Green not only has minor league coaching experience under his belt, but he’s won Manager of the Year in the Southern League for the last two seasons, and multiple graduates from those teams have praised his work once they reached the majors.
After a 12-year playing career, Nevin got his managerial start in the independent Golden Baseball League before being hired to manage Detroit’s Double-A affiliate. He was promoted to Triple-A a year later, and after three seasons there, moved on to the Diamondbacks Triple-A team.
Ward took some time off after playing in parts of 12 season as a major league outfielder. When he did return to the game, he did so as a coach in the New York-Penn League in 2007. In 2011 he entered the Diamondbacks organization, managing the Mobile Bay Bears for two seasons before being promoted to assistant hitting instructor in 2013.
Previously in the Diamondbacks organization as a bench coach, Bell retired from that post in 2006. He got back into baseball before the 2013 season as a hitting coach for the Pittsburgh Pirates, and was named as bench coach for new manager Bryan Price, in Cincinnati, in 2014.
McEwing starting his coaching career in 2008 as a hitting instructor for the Charlotte Knights, in the White Sox organization. Staying with the White Sox, he was hired as manager of the High-A Winstom-Salem Dash in 2009, where he earned a Manager of the Year award for the South Atlantic League. He went back to Charlotte for the 2011 season, this time as a manager. Starting in 2012 and continuing through today, McEwing has served as the third base coach for the White Sox.
Tracy should be a familiar name among a slew of new ones, having managed three major league franchises before. He started with the Dodgers from 2001-05, going 427-383, before moving on to Pittsburgh. He was not nearly as good with the Pirates, going 135-189 from 2006-07. He went to Colorado as a bench coach, but took over for Clint Hurdle in May 2009, eventually earning an "indefinite" contract extension following the 2011 season. He resigned in October 2012, after going 294-308 in his four years there.
Currently enjoying the postseason, Wakamatsu is the bench coach of the Royals. He previously managed the Seattle Mariners, going 85-77 in his first year as a coach before falling to 42-70 in 2010, and getting the axe. He was later hired as a bench coach in Toronto for John Farrell, and has coached in the minors, in addition to working as a scout.
More names are likely to come out as the playoffs roll on and potential candidates from teams currently in the playoffs become available.
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