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Texas Rangers rumors: The Rangers will be interviewing six additional candidates for the team's managerial job, according to various local reports.
The Rangers have already interviewed Rangers pitching coach Mike Maddux and Round Rock manager Steve Buechele. The six additional candidates are, per Evan Grant:
- Tim Bogar, who was the team's bench coach until Ron Washington resigned, at which point Bogar became the interim manager
- Joe McEwing, bench coach for the Chicago White Sox
- Torey Lovullo, bench coach for the Boston Red Sox
- Alex Cora, a former major league infielder who was, briefly, a member of the 2010 Rangers, and who Evan says is a g.m. and coach in Puerto Rico now
- Jeff Banister, bench coach for the Pittsburgh Pirates
- Kevin Cash, bullpen coach for the Cleveland Indians
There is no immediate indication that this is the entire list of people the Rangers will be interviewing, but I think it is reasonable to assume that the list consists of the eight people mentioned above.
A few things of note...
Every individual on this list is a former major league player (although Banister only has one major league game, singling in his lone plate appearance in 1991).
No one on this list has ever been a major league manager before, except for Bogar, who has managed for less than a month in the majors at the end of 2014. This is identical to the group that Jon Daniels interviewed at the end of 2006, where none of the candidates had major league managerial experience.
There are a lot of Texas ties here...aside from Maddux, Buechele and Bogar, Banister is from Texas, attending high school at LaMarque and going to college at the University of Houston; Cora was in the Rangers system in 2010; and Cash was signed as a minor league free agent after 2010, spending the 2011 season as one of the primary catchers for the Round Rock Express.
This is a young group. McEwing is 41. Cash is 36. Banister and Lovullo are both 49. Cora turns 39 later this month. Buechele and Maddux are 53. Bogar is 47.
I don't have any strong opinions about any of these guys, although I know both Lovullo and McEwing are considered to be "hot" managerial candidates, and McEwing is thought by some to be the favorite in Arizona.
I still tend to believe that the Rangers will end up hiring Tim Bogar as the permanent selection. And I'm betting we'll know for sure one way or another three weeks from now.
