Next Cubs Manager Already on the Bench?
As I hinted at in an earlier post, Jon Heyman believes that there is someone already connected with the Cubs that has an inside track to be the next manager. Speaking with 670-AM The Score, Heyman dropped what probably shouldn’t have been a shocker. Well… except it kinda did shock people.
During the offseason, when the Cubs hired new coaches, which included their new bench coach, Mark Loretta. Soon after the signing there were several indications that Loretta had a special relationship with the front office, one that could potentially undermine the current manager, Joe Maddon.
“Joe is such a great teacher and he knows so much about the game. To get him involved with the players even more so and have them do some one-on-one time is key. So I think Jed (Hoyer), Theo (Epstein) and Joe, what they’re asking me to do is be that liaison between Joe and the players and the office, quite frankly as well, because in this day and age there’s so much integration between a front office and staff and players. I’m just really going to forge as good of relationships as I can with the players. Sometimes players feel more comfortable going to a coach than a manager just because of the manager’s seat. So I understand that. I’ll also be involved more so on the hitting side and the infield side because that’s sort of my strengths.”
It is very strange that the front office hires a bench coach (when there is a current manager). It is even more strange that the front office asks that bench coach to be a liaison between the players and the front office. Perhaps it was because they were grooming him to take over once Maddon was gone?
Taking the tinfoil hat off, and not speaking to conspiracies, here is what Heyman said on The Score.
“At this time it’s speculation – I think Mark Loretta is the most likely candidate to be the Cubs’ manager,” Heyman said on the Mully & Haugh Show on Monday morning. “He did take a job there coaching, and everyone seems to respect him. His name is coming up with other teams now. Not that that’s the reason, but I do think that he will be a very strong candidate to be the manager.”
Of course, Maddon is still the Cubs manager until someone officially says he isn’t. But… we can read the tea leaves. As much as he has brought to the town and to the organization, it just might be time to go. Similar to the Chicago Blackhawks and Joel Quenneville, as good as he was for the organization, all good things tend to end. It’s best to end while most of the fan base still has a positive impression of him.
Other candidates, all speculatory, are former Cubs David Ross, Joe Girardi, and Mark Derosa, then Sandy Alomar Jr. and John Farrell.
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