Report: Fredi Gonzalez is Chicago Cubs’ Top Choice for Next Manager
The Chicago Cubs will search far and wide for their next manager, as they should. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have a first choice already – and according to “sources,” that top man is former Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez.
Sources say that Gonzalez is at the top of general manager Jim Hendry’s wish list in the early stages of the process and that he prefers a manager with major-league experience — with Class AAA manager Ryne Sandberg considered the strongest, if not only, serious candidate without that.
Gonzalez’s communication skills with Latin players he has managed, as well as his swift and decisive handling of Marlins star Hanley Ramirez’s loafing earlier this season, are considered significant strengths in his favor.
Gonzalez, 46, has a strong relationship with Hendry that goes back three decades and included time together in the Marlins organization.
Reached by phone Tuesday night, Gonzalez would neither confirm nor deny interest in the job or contact by the Cubs.
”I don’t have anything I can tell you,” he said, ”except Jim and I go back to my high school days. He coached one of the opposing teams when I played. And we worked together with the Marlins.”
Asked specifically whether he had interviewed or expected to, he declined comment. But indications are he’s in the first group of candidates on Hendry’s interview list. CHICAGO SUN-TIMES.
Gonzalez is also expected to be pursued heavily by the Atlanta Braves to replace retiring skipper Bobby Cox. Gonzalez was a coach with the Braves from 2003 to 2006.
While with the Marlins, Gonzalez had a .497 winning percentage, including back-to-back winning years in 2008 and 2009. He was widely regarded as one of the best young managers in the game, if not one of the best regardless of experience.
For my part, I view Gonzalez and Joe Girardi as options 1 and 1A in the managerial search. If the Cubs land one of them, I certainly won’t complain, but that said, I remain open minded with respect to whomever the Cubs end up with. So far, I don’t see anyone on the list that I’d scream bloody murder about – like I did (on the inside) when the Cubs went with Dusty Baker, and, to a lesser extent, Lou Piniella.
Ryne Sandberg Officially Interviews for Chicago Cubs’ Managerial Opening
While he manages the Iowa Cubs to a hopeful playoff berth, you’ll forgive Ryne Sandberg if he’s got bigger things on his mind. Yesterday, Cubs general manager Jim Hendry came to interview Sandberg for the Cubs’ open managerial gig. Of course, the concept of an “interview” for a job that the candidate knows all too well, and of a candidate that the potential employer knows all too well is a little silly, but hey, whatever works.
Cubs general manager Jim Hendry was in Albuquerque on Tuesday, and it wasn’t only to watch the Cubs’ Class AAA Iowa team as they try to make the playoffs.
Hendry also was there to talk with Iowa manager Ryne Sandberg about the Cubs’ managerial job….
Hendry may have a tough decision to make. Sandberg has not been shy about saying he’s ready to manage in the big leagues as he completes his fourth year as a minor-league manager in the Cubs’ system….
It’s unknown whether Sandberg would accept a major-league coaching job instead of the manager’s position even if Hendry tries to sell him on that option. Daily Herald.
With apologies to Sandberg, it’s hard not to see him emerging as the team’s primary fall-back candidate. The team knows what they’d be getting with Sandberg, so the mere fact that they’re interviewing so extensively suggests that they aren’t sold on Sandberg as a big league manager yet. At least not while the possibility of a perfect fit might be out there. And it would be unlikely that Sandberg would ditch the Cubs for another job before the Cubs actually make a decision.
Thus, the Cubs remain interested in the possibility of Sandberg if they can’t get into Harvard, so to speak.
Whoa: Jeff Samardzija ASKED to Stay Down at AAA Iowa
As the Chicago Cubs have gone through a cavalcade of young options in their bullpen in the last couple of months, questions have popped up as to why former top Cubs pitching prospect Jeff Samardzija was not getting a look. After all, he had some success in the Cubs pen in late 2008, even if he was a disaster there in 2009. Indeed that 2009 season was a rough one for Samardzija, who bounced from the rotation to the pen, from Chicago to Iowa and back. It was probably no surprise that, when he was given a shot to make the Cubs rotation in Spring Training, he flopped. He lasted just a few weeks in the Cubs’ pen before being sent down to Iowa.
But as the 2010 season went on, things changed. Samardzija was dominating in AAA Iowa, and had added a successful cutter to his repertoire. Why wasn’t he on the list of young pitchers to get a shot this year?
Because he asked to stay at Iowa.
“When I first got sent down, I was (ticked),” he admitted earlier this week. “I came and grabbed the ball and was letting a lot of emotions out. I talked to Mase (Iowa pitching coach Mike Mason) a lot about, ‘Where do we start? Where do we go from here?’ I was just trying to find an identity. We worked a couple different pitches in that we’ve been throwing, and that helped out a lot.
“I came down here, cleared the slate, pitched in relief. I pitched strictly out of the stretch for probably a month in relief. I tell you what, it paid dividends, especially as a starter. You have something to lean back on when a guy gets on base.”
Although he watched as other pitchers got the call to Wrigley Field, Samardzija wanted to avoid a situation like last year, when he had three separate stints with the Cubs.
“I talked to Jim, and I talked to everybody,” he said, referring to general manager Jim Hendry. “We didn’t want to do what we did last year. We didn’t want to go up and down. We didn’t want it to be a roller-coaster ride. Are we paying for it a little now? Absolutely.
“I didn’t have plans of just pitching for the Cubs for a year or two years. For me, this is a long-term decision, and there’s no other place that I want to be – ever – to tell you the truth. You take your licks now, and you learn from them.” Daily Herald.
I don’t know about you, but that’s a huge revelation for me. Not only because it explains why we haven’t seen Samardzija (but have seen Mateo, Stevens, Parker, Maine, Atkins, Coleman, Diamond… the list goes on) this year, but also because it shows a tremendous and profound change in Samardzija’s attitude and maturity.
Recall, this was a kid that, not but a few months ago, was stewing that his near 15.00 Spring ERA didn’t win him a spot in the rotation (contrast that with Sean Marshall, who dominated in ST, and still wound up in the bullpen – and took it like the consummate professional he is, and ran with it). Now, Samardzija recognizes that if he’s going to make it in the bigs, he needs time to develop his craft.
Hopefully Samardzija’s request to not be shuffled between starting in Iowa and relieving in Chicago will prove beneficial to both him and the Cubs in 2011. It certainly sounds like, if nothing else, his attitude is improved.
Aramis Ramirez Unlikely to Be Traded
It was an exciting 24 hours, but the odds of Aramis Ramirez being traded to the Atlanta Braves is approximately 0 to 1. Or 0 to 1,000,000. Whichever seems more unlikely to you.
You can forget about any of those rumors that have third baseman Aramis Ramirez going to Atlanta to replace the injured Chipper Jones. Cubs people were quick to dismiss them.
Ramirez, who has 10-and-5 rights and no-trade protection, holds an option on next year’s contract, and he has indicated he will exercise it. He has had a down year at the plate, much of it because of injury, and there might not be much of a market for him.
On top of that, if Ramirez were to be traded, an option for 2012 kicks in, making him a cost-prohibitive option for most teams. Daily Herald.
As I said yesterday, the deal would have made little sense from the Cubs’ perspective, unless they are going into a full rebuild. There is no third baseman ready to go in the Cubs’ system, and Blake DeWitt doesn’t have a big league bat at third. Throw in the fact that Jim Hendry has said the Cubs will not rebuild next year, and you’ve got a highly unlikely trade scenario that just got an obvious back of the hand.
Everyone Wants to Manage the Cubs, but the Cubs Have to Pay Them More for Some Reason
Chicago Cubs general manager Jim Hendry recently stated that he’s poised to begin the search for the next Cubs’ manager, which position will be open following Lou Piniella’s retirement at the end of this season. The list of candidates is long, and Hendry will take his time over the next few months to winnow it down to the best of the best.
And the Cubs, despite their losing ways, should be able to get the best, for a variety of reasons.
“It’s a marquee job,” Hendry said. “The great city we live in, the ballpark and the great fan base we have, I think for [those reasons], just about everybody would want a crack at it.
“And also the intrigue of wanting to be the manager that eventually won a world championship. That’s all part of the lure to everybody over the past 8-10 years that I’ve been hiring to manage.”…
“There’s a heavier price to pay because of that long drought without a championship, and the scrutiny that you’re under on a daily basis in that position,” Hendry said. ESPN Chicago.
Is Hendry setting us up for another huge manager contract? I’ve made no secret that my biggest problem with the Lou Piniella and Dusty Baker hires was not necessarily the choice of manager, itself (though I was never a Baker fan, and I thought Lou wasn’t going to be the same guy he was in Cincinnati or Seattle). My biggest beef was the fact that the guys were getting $3, 4 million per year to manage the Cubs. To my mind, there is no way that any manager provides so much more value over another ML-caliber manager that he’s worth 3, 4 times as much as the average ML manager. But that’s how the Cubs have been paying their managers over the past decade.
Maybe it will make sense to pay the next manager a big ‘ole chunk of money; maybe it won’t. I’ll reserve judgment until the hire is made and the contract is announced. But for now, suffice it to say I find it very strange to say in one breath that the Cubs’ gig is one of the most attractive in baseball that “just about everybody” would want, and then in the next breath note that the manager is going to be crushed under the weight of daily scrutiny and a long championship-less drought.
In any event, the Cubs are expected to interview upwards of 15 potential managers, including Ryne Sandberg, Joe Girardi, Fredi Gonzalez, Bob Brenly, Bobby Valentine, Pat Listach, and Ted Simmons.
Jim Hendry is Not Looking to Rebuild the Chicago Cubs
With a team as terrible and overpriced as the Chicago Cubs presently appear to be, with an aging core, and with a promising set of youngsters, most teams would view the Cubs as an ideal rebuilding opportunity. Imagine the powerhouse the Cubs could be in two or three years if they sold off their expensive pieces, groomed young talent, and then spent up for free agents to pair with that young talent.
But imagining is all you can do, as current Cubs general manager Jim Hendry has no intention of rebuilding.
“I’m here to tell you it’s not some kind of a major rebuilding job,” Hendry told Bruce Miles of the Daily Herald yesterday. “When you start seeing the improvement in the young people that we have and the type of young arms that we have and the arms that we have coming, you make three or four solid moves in the off-season and your young guys keep developing, then you’re right back to being a contending team, and that’s the way we’re going to go about it.”
Immediate reactions:
1. Jim, that’s the right idea, but you’re about two years premature.
2. Three or four “solid” moves? When I think solid moves, I think “Cliff Lee,” but I suspect Jim thinks “John Grabow.”
3. If there are to be three or four moves of any kind, maybe some will be trades, as there may not be three to four open spots on the Cubs. The outfield, third, short, second, catcher, four starting pitchers, and most of the bullpen are under contract and set. Hopefully that means there will be some trades, but I suppose it could simply mean signing a middling starting pitcher, an overpriced veteran reliever coming off a career year, and a first baseman.
Tom Ricketts: Jim Hendry is the Cubs GM “Going Into Next Year”
With the announcement that Lou Piniella will retire at the end of this season, Jim Hendry’s status as Chicago Cubs General Manager was bound to receive some new scrutiny for two reasons: (1) he and Piniella are tied together, and as one departs, many believe so should the other in order to start fresh; and (2) the Cubs’ GM will hire the next Cubs manager.
Chicago Cubs’ owner Tom Ricketts says Hendry remains his guy. At least “going into next year.” Which is kind of a weird way to give a vote of confidence.
“Jim is our general manager full stock,” Ricketts said. “He will be leading the effort to find our new manager for next year here and will be our general manager going into next year.” …
“When we came in to this organization, I said our opening press conference that Day 1 was square one with everyone in the organization,” Ricketts said. “I think from that day going forward we had a very good offseason. I think Jim delivered on bringing in some players who contributed a lot to this season, and we had a good offseason, no question.
“I think the second thing that gives me 100 percent confidence in Jim is that we have a good organization. The way you win consistently in baseball is to draft well, to develop players well and to bring those players up to the major leagues to give you the flexibility you need with payroll and trades. I think we have the organization in place. I have the highest confidence in everyone in our organization, and I think that speaks well of Jim.” ESPN Chicago.
That sounds like business-speak to me. Ricketts has decided not to fire Hendry, and therefore, Hendry will stick through the season. Then, heading into the offseason, Ricketts is pretty sure that he wants Hendry to make the team’s offseason moves, so he carefully words a defense of Hendry, and says Hendry’s the guy “going into next year.” But he’s left open the door to dismiss Hendry should the offseason look ugly.
Why you would want a lame duck GM to hire your next manager and build your next team is beyond me, though.
Would Joe Girardi Leave the Yankees to Manage the Cubs?
Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella’s contract is up at the end of this year, and while he gets all the support in the world from Jim Hendry and Tom Ricketts, there is no denying the undercurrent of opposition to having him back as manager next year.
So if Piniella is out for 2011, who’s in? Various names have been mentioned – AAA Iowa manager Ryne Sandberg, announcer and former manager Bob Brenly – but one that hasn’t is the last guy the Cubs strong considered for a managerial spot: Joe Girardi. Would he even consider heading out from the Yanks (where he’s under contract just through this year) to come to Chicago?
In fact, Chicago favorite son Joe Girardi — the man who got that New York job a year later — still calls the Cubs’ managing job attractive.
”It’s a great city, it’s a great baseball town, yeah,” the Peoria native and originally drafted Cub says even now. Even with the confetti still occasionally falling from a sock or shirt sleeve after that latest World Series he presided over as the Yankees’ second-year manager in October.
But would the Northwestern grad and All-Star Cubs catcher with four Yankees rings — three as a player — again consider tackling what might be the only great challenge in the game he hasn’t already taken down in his young managing career.
Maybe even now?
What’s certain is this: The 45-year-old who won a Manager of the Year award in Florida in his first season on the job and a World Series in New York in his third season as a manager (second with the Yanks) is not under contract beyond this season.
What’s nearly as certain is that the Cubs will have a managerial opening after this season, whether because Piniella steps down, is not asked back or by some mutual decision.
And for all the attention and sentiment directed Ryne Sandberg’s way by those speculating on Piniella’s successor, it’s hard to imagine a more suitable replacement than the other guy who played there, is from there, has succeeded at two different ends of the major-league managing spectrum and has commanded respect and performance from young teams in Florida as well as celebrity teams in New York.
”That’s not something I would talk about now,” he said. ”I grew up in Peoria. I grew up a Cub fan. But right now, I’m extremely happy where I’m at.” CHICAGO SUN-TIMES.
Interestingly, throughout the article, Girardi is quoted just like that – saying how much he loves the Cubs, but how happy he is right now. Not once does he say something like, “I really hope to stay with the Yankees for years to come.” Of course, that could well be clever quoting by a Chicago Cubs’ writer, but it is interesting nonetheless.
