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Raul Ibanez, Don Wakamatsu On List Of Tampa Bay Rays Managerial Candidates
By Dan Hughes
Former Seattle Mariner Raul Ibanez and former Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu have each been tabbed as one of eight preliminary managerial candidates for the Tampa Bay Rays according to a Tweet sent out by the Rays.
Ibanez’s name on this list comes as a bit of a surprise to me as he has zero coaching experience and has not retired as a player yet. But nonetheless, his name was on the list.
Here's our preliminary group of interview candidates for #Rays manager, shown alphabetically: pic.twitter.com/PeZHb51v6v
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) November 6, 2014
President of Baseball Operations Matt Silverman on #Rays manager search: pic.twitter.com/m7eHKQJmDy
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) November 6, 2014
According to this list, there are two in-house options (Dave Martinez is the current bench coach and my pick to take over for Joe Maddon – and Charlie Montoyo is the Rays’ Triple-A affiliate skipper), two former Major League managers (Manny Acta and former Mariners skipper Don Wakamatsu), Giants bench coach Ron Wotus, Indians bullpen coach Kevin Cash and two former players (Ibanez and Craig Counsell – currently a special assistant for the Brewers).
As the tweets indicate, this list will likely be added to as the process continues. I personally would like to see recently fired Rick Renteria get the job and take the Rays to the World Series before Maddon takes the Cubs.
If Ibanez does in fact wish to get into coaching, we wish him all the best. I would like to see the Mariners organization find a role for him much like they did for Dan Wilson. But for now, we’ll have to just wait and see how serious the Rays are about Ibanez.