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Buried in this Patrick Mooney/Sahadev Sharma article in The Athletic, which mostly has to do with front-office changes being made for the Cubs, is this nugget:
At the major-league level, the Cubs are saying their bench coach job is open. Mark Loretta, Maddon’s bench coach this year, will be considered, but other candidates are interviewing. Sources say former San Diego Padres manager Andy Green is one of several names on the team’s radar, while John Farrell — a former Red Sox pitching coach and manager and current Cincinnati Reds special assistant — is not being considered for a role on Ross’ staff.
Well.
Despite the fact that the article says Mark Loretta “will be considered,” the fact that Mooney and Sharma wrote that the “job is open” reads, to me, like Loretta’s gone and that new manager David Ross will make his own choice.
Andy Green is an interesting possibility. He checks off one of the boxes that would seem important to Ross, who has no coaching or managing experience. Green has four years of major-league managing experience, 2016-19 with the Padres, as well as four years’ managing experience in the minor leagues in the Diamondbacks chain. He spent 2015 as Arizona’s major-league third base coach.
While Green did not have anything resembling a winning season with the Padres — his best was a 71-win season in 2017 — just having that experience could be invaluable to Ross. Sometimes failed managers make good bench coaches. Ross and Green are the same age (they’ll both turn 43 next season)
We also learn from the article quote that former Red Sox manager John Farrell — for whom Ross played in 2013 and 2014 — is not under consideration for the bench coach position.
More to come, presumably, since the article states there are “several” names on the team radar for that position. I wrote about some of those men here last week.
As always, we await developments.