Just a quick note while we’re on the subject of Chicago Cubs coaching changes (which started last night, and we discussed further this morning). One of the last-arriving coaches to Craig Counsell’s staff last year was Ryan Flaherty, a former Cubs prospect who’d worked his way up as a coach, reaching the bench coach job with the Padres, and then getting that same role last year with the Cubs.
It’s been clear that he was an up-and-comer for a while, and generally speaking, those types – especially when they’ve reached the bench coach level and have worked under some top-tier managers – tend to get managerial interviews on the regular.
So it’s no surprise that Flaherty’s name comes up in connection with the open White Sox job (Jon Heyman):
“The White Sox may need to go young for manager.
Well-regarded Cubs bench coach Ryan Flaherty and Pirates bench coach Don Kelly make sense there.”
I wonder if that’s a carefully placed nudge from some source, intended to ensure that Flaherty gets an interview? As always in these situations, if a Cubs coach has a chance to get a top job, I feel compelled to say: good luck and go get it.
That said, if Counsell is inclined to keep Flaherty on as his bench coach, you’d obviously like it if he were able to have the guy(s) he wants on staff. That, of course, is the whole point of him finally being able to build out his own group – that doesn’t mean everyone gets fired and replaced, as some of the guys Counsell wants most might already be on staff.
I don’t really have any kind of sense of how Flaherty and Counsell worked together this year. Nothing good or bad or anything in any direction. I just haven’t heard. So we’ll see how this plays out both internally and externally.