Report: Cubs Naming New Manager Thursday

Take this for what you will, but Peter Gammons reports that the Cubs' managerial search is nearing an end:

Sometime Thursday the Cubs will announce their new manager. Jed Hoyer, Theo Epstein and the baseball staff will meet for the final time Wednesday, finalize the decision and make their decision public tomorrow. In the final hours, it seems that Padres bench coach Rich Renteria is the favorite, with his experience in development and managing in Mexico, an advantage for a team that in the next two years will be bringing a number of highly-touted players—many of them from Latin America—up to Wrigley Field.

It does indeed appear, from everything I've read, that Renteria is going to be the guy (unless there's a sudden "mystery candidate"). While I would have chosen Dave Martinez, Renteria has a lot of respect in the baseball community and has the advantage of connections in Latin America, as Gammons notes.

Mark Gonzales of the Tribune has more on recent developments regarding Renteria:

It's axiomatic that the Cubs have asked Renteria about his handling of a bench-clearing brawl with Canada during the World Baseball Classic in March when Renteria managed Team Mexico.

Renteria told reporters after the fight that "it was just a misunderstanding" of the WBC tiebreaking rules in which Canada bunted with a six-run lead in the ninth, leading to a drilling by a Mexican pitcher.

One of the things I would have concentrated on is handling of a pitching staff and bullpen. Many recent Cubs managers have had trouble with this. I don't know what Renteria's views on that are, but I do think that's a really important consideration. As noted above, he's not my first choice, but I'll certainly give him a chance to show what he can do. His choices for a coaching staff are also very important.

Looks like we'll find out for sure Thursday.