The Seattle Mariners are kicking off their managerial search by interviewing seven people. Two people are currently Boston Red Sox coaches: bench coach Brad Mills and third-base coach DeMarlo Hale.
Mills, teammates with Terry Francona in college and the Montreal Expos, has been Francona’s bench coach since day one with Sox and has 11 years experience managing in the minors. Mills has two claims to fame: being Nolan Ryan’s strikeout victim that lifted him to first all-time and his son, Beau Mills, being drafted in the first round of 2007 by the Cleveland Indians.
Hale, a former Oakland Athletic and Red Sox, joined the staff before the 2006 season and by all accounts has been a fine coach. He managed in the Sox farm system and was named minor league manager of the year by many outlets in 1999. He then spent a couple years managing the Texas Rangers’ farm system then became the first-base coach.
This is only the start of what will eventually be a pilfering of Sox coaches, much like the Yankees experienced. The Arizona Diamondbacks jumped the gun by hiring Josh Byrne as their GM a few years ago (who took Peter Woodfork with him), and now Mills, Hale and assistant GMs Ben Cherington and Jed Hoyer should get promotions eventually. Mills and Hale can be thought of as the Red Sox version of Willie Randolph and Lee Mazzilli. One can only hope the two find better success than the Yankees’ coaches.
UPDATE: John Farrell declined an opportunity to interview for the Mariners gig.
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Good for them, and good for the Sox. I also heard that someone is looking at our pitching coach, John Farrell. Such flattery.
Farrell has apparently taken himself out of the running for the Seattle job, citing family reasons and organizational loyalty as his reasons. Which I think is awesome news. He has done a fantastic job working with Tito, Tek, and our young pitchers. Still, with our success over Francona’s tenure I suppose it’s inevitable that some of his guys get tapped for head jobs of their own. Good luck to them all for sure.