Are veterans Bochy, La Russa targets for manager openings?
Is Tony La Russa in the mix to manage the Chicago White Sox?
According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, the club is planning to reach out to the former A’s manager about their managerial vacancy after they parted ways with Rick Renteria on Monday.
La Russa, 76, retired in 2011 after he led the St. Louis Cardinals to their second World Series title in six years. He began a 33-year managerial career in Major League Baseball in 1979 with the White Sox, and remains close friends with team owner Jerry Reinsdorf.
La Russa, who managed the A’s to three consecutive trips to the World Series, including a championship in 1989, declined to comment when he was contacted by USA Today.
Jack McKeon is the oldest manager to win a World Series. He was 72 when he led the Marlins to the championship in 2003.
McKeon had a second stint with the club in 2011, hired as the team’s interim manager when he was 80. McKeon became the second-oldest manager in big league history, behind Connie Mack, who managed the Philadelphia Athletics until he was 87 in 1950.
When the White Sox announced Monday that they were parting ways with Renteria, general manager Rick Hahn said the team’s next manager will likely be someone from outside the organization.
Hahn said the ideal candidate would be someone that has recent October experience with a championship organization.
Names that have surfaced include A. J. Hinch and Alex Cora, whose MLB suspensions from the sign-stealing scandal end after the World Series. Hinch led the Astros to the 2017 World Series title. Cora, the Astros’ bench coach in 2017, was the Boston Red Sox’s manager when they won the World Series in 2018.
Although few managers have had more October success than La Russa, a winner of six pennants and three world championships, it would be a stretch to say his experience is recent.
After he stepped down as the Cardinals’ manager, La Russa worked as the Arizona Diamondbacks’ president of baseball operations from 2014-17 and has been a special assistant in the front office for the Red Sox and Los Angeles Angels.
La Russa’s career regular-season record as a manager is 2,7282,365.
The White Sox finished third in the American League Central this year and lost to the A’s in the first round of the playoffs.
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