The Phillies are reportedly one of multiple teams interested in hiring former Marlins manager and current Rockies bench coach Mike Redmond as manager.
One of the first substantive reports in the Phillies manager search has emerged with Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports reporting that Philadelphia is interested in hiring former Marlins manager and current Rockies bench coach Mike Redmond. The Tigers are also interested in Redmond, with Heyman saying more teams could be interested if more jobs open up.
However, Heyman seems to think that Redmond is more likely to end up in Detroit as Redmond and Tigers general manager Al Avila was the assistant GM of the 2003 Marlins World Series team Redmond was a part of. Meanwhile, Heyman called Philadelphia’s interest in Redmond “speculative” up to this point.
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The Rockies just lost the NL Wild Card game to the Ariziona Diamondbacks, so it’s very likely teams have already reached out to Redmond about the position.
Redmond has managed in the majors just once in the past for the Miami Marlins between 2013 and 2015. In 362 games, he had a 155-207 record. The Marlins went 62-100 in Redmond’s first season as manager with an utterly abhorrent offense.
They improved to 77-85 in his second year in 2014. In 2015, Redmond was fired after 38 games with a 16-22 record.
R.J. Anderson of CBS Sports pointed out that Baseball Prospectus’ 2015 handbook saw Redmond as a manager with a promising future in the league:
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"It’s perhaps worth noting that Baseball Prospectus 2015 described Redmond as a manager on the rise, writing that he “understood the subtleties of his roster and didn’t force it to play like something it wasn’t.” The book called him a solid tactician, observing that he understood how to run a platoon and mostly bunted with weak hitters."
A manager who understands the players he has and uses them effectively may be something general manager Matt Klentak may be looking for. That was one of them complaints about former manager Pete Mackanin this year for the Phils before he was fired.
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A career backup catcher, Redmond played in 764 games over 13 years. A young catching core like the one Philadelphia has could benefit from having Redmond at the helm.