Gradually, the White Sox are getting closer to a managerial hire, even if the nature of the MLB playoffs doesn't allow for the steadiest of progressions.
As a source told our Josh Nelson and was later confirmed to me, the Sox have started informing some candidates that they have been eliminated from consideration for their open manager position. With the team still anticipating a new manager in place by the end of October and before the league's general manager meetings in the first week of November, the midway point of the month is a natural time to start narrowing their focus.
However, because of the team's interest in assistants from top teams, the continuation of the league's Championship Series means that the White Sox have yet to have the chance to formally interview some candidates who are still in the mix, because their teams are still alive in the playoffs. So as Josh has been told a new slate of names the Sox are considering strongly, a source indicates to me that it would premature to consider them "finalists" because the team has some candidates who remain in the initial stage of review.
That said, here are two new names to mull over, both of whom would be first-time MLB managers.
George Lombard, Tigers bench coach
The 49-year-old Atlanta native and six-year big leaguer has been A.J. Hinch's bench coach for all four of his seasons in Detroit, after a five-year run as the Dodgers' first-base coach. Experience as part of the uniformed staff for a progressive, winning organization is something Lombard has in his back pocket, before even getting to his knowledge of a division rival whose success with a young, unproven roster is an obvious source of envy for a multitude of reasons. He also completed online coursework for a psychology degree in 2015 before his run on the Dodgers coaching staff began, so if his clubhouse ever spirals on him, he'll have a lot of useful terminology on hand to describe it.
With the Tigers, Lombard oversaw much of the team's outfield defense and baserunning work on top of the standard minutiae of signs and shifting that comes with being the manager's right-hand man. With the quotes that Tigers players were giving The Athletic's Cody Stavenhagen back in spring of 2022, it's of some surprise that he's even stayed in Detroit this long.
“Having George there and having that backbone, just helping us throughout everything is crucial,” [Akil] Baddoo said. “He’s a hardass, but at the same time he has fun and a good time.”
It’s hard to know which managerial jobs will open in the future and when. But expect Lombard’s name to pop up as a candidate for jobs in another year.
He is the Tigers’ hidden gem, but it won’t be that way much longer.
“I’m just enjoying every second we get with him,” [Robbie] Grossman said, “because at some point he won’t be here.”
A.J. Ellis, Padres special assistant to major league staff & baseball operations
Ellis' career was so defined by the pitch-framing, game-planning and on-field awareness that made him Clayton Kershaw's preferred catcher during a nine-year run with the Dodgers, that it's probably a surprise for many to know that he ended his career in 2018 with their division rival in San Diego, and he hasn't left the Padres organization since.
The Padres added Ellis to their baseball operations staff in 2019 in a role that's hard to pin down or collect testimonials for, but has included plenty of roving player development work that wouldn't take much imagination to apply it to a young and unestablished White Sox roster. At the risk of running into an oft-used cliche, descriptions of Ellis' final year in uniform sound like the run-up to a managerial career already.
A.J. Ellis, [Austin] Hedges said, has been vital on all fronts.
“He helped remind me of who I am as a person, that my title is not ‘baseball player,’” Hedges, 26, said. “I have way more titles that are more important to me, as a son, a friend, a teammate. He’d send me Bible verses that would really hit home with me, that helped him get through similar things. Just those little things, he was always there with positive reinforcement to help me get back, and once I was, it just never stopped.
“He’s been one of the biggest role models of my life.”
In this case the cliché is harmless, because the White Sox's interest in Ellis would be in him to actually manage, rather than be a coach on the field who then winds up coming to bat in the eighth with the game on the line.
Another name confirmed to be "still alive" is, unsurprisingly, former Marlins manager Skip Schumaker, whose prior managing experience and success (he was the 2023 National League Manager of the Year), and previous connection with special advisor Tony La Russa all made him a fairly obvious candidate for the White Sox job once it became clear he would not be returning to Miami.
It would feel safe to call him a finalist by default, if we hadn't already covered the fact that no one is a finalist yet.
