WEDGE TAKES SWING AT YANKS GIG
The Yankees aren’t limiting themselves to candidates with limited or no managerial experience to fill the vacancy left by Joe Girardi not being brought back.
Eric Wedge was the second person to interview to become the next Yankees manager, following bench coach Rob Thomson.
Wedge, who turns 50 in January, was the Indians’ manager from 2003-09 and managed the Mariners from 2011-13.
In 10 seasons, Wedge went 774-846 and made the playoffs just once in 2007 with Cleveland.
“I learned a great deal from both experiences,” Wedge said during a conference call Friday after meeting with general manager Brian Cashman and other executives. “I think when you’re a big league manager, you’ve got to handle the good, the bad and the ugly.”
Wedge dealt with plenty in his decade as a manager, overseeing the building up and tearing down of the Indians, then three straight losing seasons with the Mariners before he walked away from a one-year extension from an organization he said had “total dysfunction and a lack of leadership” in an interview with the Seattle Times later that year.
“In Cleveland, it was more of a rebuild,” Wedge said. “Younger players at the big league level and watching them grow from year to year, it was a lot of fun to see them have success and watch them grow. In Seattle, we were on a similar path, but it didn’t play out in time with me leaving there.”
The job in The Bronx would entail getting back to the postseason with a young team that came off a surprising run to the ALCS.
“I’m very comfortable with young ballplayers with a lot of ability at the big league level,” Wedge said. “I’m very passionate about the game of baseball. I’m humble and resilient, as well. I think you’ve got to have a certain level of toughness to be a big league manager and handle everything that goes with that.”
But he acknowledged the chal- lenges of having never played, coached or managed in New York.
“I understand managing in New York is an entirely different situation altogether,” Wedge said. “I recognize that. I respect that. To the point I haven’t managed here before, I think as [well] as anybody, I do have an understanding of that from being across the diamond and playing here.”
His lone playoff appearance came 10 years ago, when the Indians won 96 games and beat the Yankees in the ALDS before losing to the Red Sox in seven games in the ALCS. It was a team led by CC Sabathia, but Wedge said he has not reached out to the free agent about the job.
Despite that success, none of Wedge’s next five teams finished above .500. He suffered a stroke in his last season in Seattle and missed 28 games before leaving the Mariners, and has spent the past two seasons as the field coordinator for the Blue Jays.
Wedge played parts of four seasons in the majors with the Red Sox and Rockies from 1991-94 and was just 35 when the Indians named him their manager.
Cashman has said he is looking for someone who can connect with the players, and Wedge called his approach “firm, fair and consistent as a manager” while staying “evenkeeled.”
A former catcher, Wedge likely would work closely with Gary Sanchez, whose defense was questioned last season, including by Girardi.
“He’s still going through things that he needs to go through,” Wedge said. “He’ll get better. It’s just a maturation process that young players with his type of ability have to go through.”
Unlike Girardi, though, Wedge said he wouldn’t criticize Sanchez — or any player — publicly.
“You’re gonna have to be one tough cookie [as a player] to be able do that and make it work for you,” Wedge said. “I believe you can have a personal relationship with your players as well as a professional relationship. It takes a little bit more time. It takes a little bit more effort. I think it’s something that’s imperative. It’s something I’ve always done, and it’s something I’ll continue to do.”