Bosio, Cubs’ 1st casualty, joins Tigers’ staff

The Detroit Tigers hired pitching coach Chris Bosio on Friday, a week after he was fired by the Cubs.

The Tigers’ interest in Bosio was first reported by the Sun- Times’ Gordon Wittenmyer and confirmed Friday by USA Today’s Bob Nightengale.

Bosio, 54, was fired last Friday after six successful seasons under three different managers. He joins the staff of newly hired manager Ron Gardenhire. And he has his work cut out for him, inheriting a pitching staff that was worst in the majors in 2017 with a 5.36 ERA. The Tigers also are coping with the loss of ace Justin Verlander, who was dealt midseason to the Astros.

Rich Dubee had been the Tigers’ pitching coach the last two seasons but was let go after this season.

Dumping Bosio was the first step in a complete upheaval of Cubs manager JoeMaddon’s coaching staff coming off a loss to the Dodgers in the NLCS. The Cubs officially announced Jim Hickey as Bosio’s replacement Thursday.

Conine donewithMarlins

Longtime Marlins player and staff member Jeff Conine, most recently a special assistant to former Marlins president David Samson, told ESPN the new ownership group led by Derek Jeter offered him a lesser role with lower pay and that he’s leaving.

Jeter and Conine, who’s known as “Mr. Marlin,” reportedly couldn’t agree on a role for Conine after Jeter backed off initial plans to dump Conine, Andre Dawson, Tony Perez and Jack McKeon from the front office.

This and that

The Braves asked for permission to interview Royals general manager Dayton Moore about running their baseball operation, but Royals owner David Glass denied their request earlier this week, according to ESPN.

Former Red Sox skipper John Farrell is interviewing to be the next manager of the Nationals.