The Phillies manager search is officially underway.
After news came out that former Nationals manager Dusty Baker would interview for the Phillies manager job on Wednesday, there’s now word of two more managers getting a meeting.
Jim Salisbury of NBCS Philadelphia reports that former Orioles manager, and reported favorite for the job, Buck Showalter is interviewing on Monday. Salisbury adds that the Phillies brass will be traveling to New York to interview Showalter, who is working for the YES Network, and that former Yankees manager Joe Girardi is also expected to meet with the team during that time.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic confirmed the report that both Girardi and Showalter will interview for the job.
Showalter, who was hired by Philadelphia’s president Andy MacPhail to manage the Orioles, appears to be the first candidate interviewing for the job. He’s managed the Yankees, Diamondbacks, Rangers, and Orioles over a 20-year career, but has never won a pennant.
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Girardi would be the second manager in baseball history to manage a team he beat in the World Series as the opposing manager. He led the Yankees to a championship over Philadelphia in 2009.
The slew of interviews comes just days after the team fired manager Gabe Kapler after two seasons. Kapler is expected to interview for the San Francisco Giants job after future Hall of Famer Bruce Bochy retired at the end of the season.
Philadelphia’s Major League Player Information Coordinator Sam Fuld is reportedly linked to multiple big league manager jobs and was listed as a potential in-house candidate for the Phillies.
Other potential candidates for Philadelphia include bench coach Rob Thompson and third base coach Dusty Wathan, who managed many of the team’s young stars in the minor leagues. Thompson was Girardi’s bench coach in New York and worked for the team for years.
Check out the list of 14 candidates we’ve compiled for the manager job here.