Phillies: 14 candidates to replace manager Gabe Kapler

Joe Maddon

Joe Maddon was the hot name to watch after an amicable divorce with the Chicago Cubs despite winning the team’s first World Series in over a century. With connections to the Keystone State and a championship pedigree, Maddon feels like a solid fit on the surface.

Once the Angels decided to fire Brad Ausmus, the general consensus around baseball is that Maddon was the guy in Los Angeles. He worked for the Angels in some capacity from 1979 to 2005 as a minor league manager, scout, and major league coach before going to Tampa Bay for the Rays manager job.

A knock on Maddon would be his history of running a loose clubhouse, something Kapler was criticized for, which led up to the Carlos Santana Fortnite incident.

Maddon will, at the very least, get a phone call from the Phillies and may very well interview for the job, but all indications are he wants to return to Los Angeles.

Mike Scioscia

The man Maddon worked under for years as an Angels coach is also a Pennsylvania native. Mike Scioscia grew up less than 20 minutes away from Veteran’s Stadium and, as Jon Heyman reported on his “Big Time Baseball” podcast, Scioscia “is very interested in this job.”

Would Scioscia be willing to come back to the east coast after 19 years with the Angels in California? For the right price, absolutely you’d think he would. Something to remember with Scioscia is his disdain for analytics and the clash he had with the Angels front office, which included Matt Klentak, over the in-game use of the advanced metrics.

Like Maddon, it wouldn’t shock me if Scioscia got a phone call about the job, but I’m not sure if he’s the right fit given where the game is going.