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| Chip Hale has 2,728 fewer managerial victories than the man to his left in this photo, Tony LaRussa. |
Which leaves the Twins with six known candidates and perhaps more to come.
We know of inside candidates Gene Glynn, Doug Mienkiewicz and Paul Molitor, and of outside candidates Sandy Alomar Jr,, Torey Lovullo and Joe McEwing. There's a very real chance that the search is now on hold while one or more candidates now coaching teams in the playoffs -- specifically John Russell of Baltimore and perhaps Jose Oquendo of St. Louis -- finishes the season.
It would be unfair to pin a specific label on any of the six -- unfair but tempting. They are all, without doubt, unique blends of personality and experience. Yet we can slide each into an individual slot:
- Glynn is the proven instructor and minor league veteran.
- Mientkiewicz is the young gun, just five years removed from his own playing days.
- Molitor is the Hall of Famer, with all the respect that carries.
- Alomar Jr. is the Spanish speaker.
- Lovullo is the guy from the sabermetric organization.
- McEwing is Mientkiewicz from the outside.
If Russell -- who was the first outsider to be specifically tied to the search in media reports -- is indeed a candidate, his pigeonhole would be "the recycled manager."
Again, these guys all are more complex than those brief sentences.
My (emphatically outside) view on this group:
- I prefer Mientkiewicz over the field.
- Of the outside candidates, including Russell, I prefer Alomar Jr. because of the language component. The Twins have so many Latin players of importance coming up, but their track record with such talent under Ron Gardenhire was spotty.
- I still expect Molitor to get the job, in part because it's easier to imagine Mientkiewicz on Molitor's staff than vice versa.
