UPDATE: Darin Erstad has withdrawn his name from consideration.
With Darin Erstad withdrawing from consideration, #Dodgers appear to be down to 3 finalists for managerial job: https://t.co/z667PvX6tA
— Dylan Hernandez (@dylanohernandez) November 14, 2015
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The Los Angeles Dodgers are currently the only MLB team without a manager for the 2016 season. The club parted ways with Don Mattingly in October and he already took the manager job with the Miami Marlins. However, rumors suggest the Dodgers have narrowed down their choices for their next skipper.
Los Angeles has been conducting an extensive search, but the field should be further narrowed by the end of this week or early next week.
Zaidi: #Dodgers expect to be down to 3-4 managerial candidates by the end of the week.
— Dylan Hernandez (@dylanohernandez) November 10, 2015
But who will make the cut?
The Dodgers have interviewed in-house candidates Gabe Kapler, Ron Roenicke and Tim Wallach as well as Bud Black, Darin Erstad, Kirk Gibson, Dave Roberts, Dave Martinez and Bob Geren over the past few weeks. Kapler was initially said to be the favorite, but previous rumors suggested Dave Roberts impressed during his interview and could emerge as the frontrunner. Those two figure to be in the mix in the near future.
"The Los Angeles Dodgers have interviewed nine candidates for their managerial opening and are going to bring back four of them as finalists next week," writes ESPN Insider Jim Bowden. "The four will come from the following five candidates: Bud Black, Darin Erstad, Gabe Kapler, Kirk Gibson and Dave Roberts. The rest of the field is no longer in contention, according to sources familiar with the search. Kapler, the Dodgers' director of player development, is still considered the front-runner by many despite his lack of managerial experience and denials from the team of that being the case."
The only candidates with managing experience that were interviewed are Black (former Padres manager), Roenicke (former Brewers manager), Geren (former Athletics manager) and Gibson (former Diamondbacks manager).
However, Bowden notes that both president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and senior VP of baseball operations Josh Byrnes have a good track record when hiring managers with little or no experience at the MLB level. Friedman hired Joe Maddon when he was with the Tampa Bay Rays and Byrnes had input regarding Black (in San Diego), A.J. Hinch (in Arizona) and Terry Francona (in Boston) during his past experiences working for other front offices.
"These guys are all guys we, as a front office, vetted, we talked to people about, we developed the candidate list," Dodgers GM Farhan Zaidi told Ken Gurnick of MLB.com. "[CEO] Stan [Kasten] and ownership have been very supportive of the process and interested in how things are going, but we've certainly been the drivers.
"[Ownership is] being kept aware of the candidates and generally how things are going, and our hope is when we bring some guys back, we'll bring them in front of some owners for a little face time."
The Dodgers will likely be selecting someone who aligns with the front office's philosophy, which is exactly why Mattingly is no longer there despite delivering three straight NL West titles.
Stay tuned for updates, as it's expected Roberts, Kapler, Black and Erstad will be the official finalists.
