Tampa Bay Rays complete first round of manager interviews

Interviews for the Tampa Bay Rays’ manager opening continue, as the team has completed its initial meetings with each of their ten candidates. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes that the team is expected to “take inventory” in the coming week, determining how many candidates they want to bring back for a second, more in depth interview.

Topkin also notes that the team has not ruled out bringing in another outside candidate that was not on the initial list.

The team has already met with current bench coach Dave Martinez, Triple-A manager Charlie Montoyo, former Nationals and Indians manager Manny Acta, Indians bullpen coach Kevin Cash (a finalist for the opening in Texas last month), Brewers special assistant Craig Counsell, former Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu, Giants bench coach Ron Wotus, ESPN analyst Doug Glanville, Hall of Famer Barry Larkin, and the not-quite-retired Raul Ibanez.

Larkin’s interview came on Saturday, according to Topkin. While he was the last on the team’s initial list, there are believed to be some questions about the shortstop’s commitment to taking on a coaching role. Larkin was supposed to interview with the Detroit Tigers a year ago, but backed out of consideration over concerns about being away from his family. The Tigers job ended up going to Brad Ausmus instead.

Much of the early public speculation would seem to favor one of Martinez or Montoyo taking over the position vacated by Joe Maddon, partly due to each’s familiarity to the current roster. Martinez has long been viewed as a potential successor to Maddon and reportedly is the favorite among many of the current players as he’d allow them to maintain the most consistency.