Arizona Diamondbacks: Torey Lovullo a Candidate for Manager?

After hiring Mike Hazen from the Boston Red Sox, the Arizona Diamondbacks could target Boston’s bench coach Torey Lovullo as their next manager.

The Arizona Diamondbacks had all the pieces to compete this season, but key injuries and struggles from vital players led to their 69-93 record.  The front office staff, which included Tony La Russa as Chief Baseball Officer and Dave Stewart as general manager, pushed hard in the offseason to assemble a contender, but their moves proved ill-fated.

Now, with a new regime in tow – and La Russa in an advisory role – the Diamondbacks will look to keep their current collection of talent together, but with a manager capable of fostering a winning culture.

New executive vice president and general manager Mike Hazen, who was hired from the Boston Red Sox, is the first step.  But next, they’ll need to replace manager Chip Hale, who saw the team crumble despite breakout seasons from various players.

Arizona’s next manager could be Boston’s bench coach, Torey Lovullo, as reported by Bob Nightengale of USA Today.  The 51-year-old has proved to be a capable manager in his time with Boston, and could be just what the Diamondbacks need. While he’s been a bench coach with the Sox, Lovullo proved effective as a manager when he took over for John Farrell toward the end of last season.

While Farrell was out battling lymphoma, Lovullo led the Sox to a 28-21 record. As compared to their struggles earlier in the season, Lovullo managed to find a way to balance the lineup with the Sox’s young stars and established veterans.

In his time with the Red Sox, Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts have established themselves as superstars, David Ortiz enjoyed arguably the greatest final season of all time and Dustin Pedroia rejuvenated his stagnant career.

In Arizona, Lovullo has the chance to do the same. A.J. Pollock has been one of the better center fielders for a few seasons, and if not for an injury this year, he likely would’ve been thrust onto the national stage.  With Pollock out, Goldschmidt experienced a down season by his standards, while Yasmany Tomas, Jean Segura and Jake Lamb found their footing as major leaguers.

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Like Boston in 2015, Arizona’s offense isn’t the problem.  This past offseason, the D-Backs brought in Zack Greinke to take reigns as the staff ace, but he struggled to pitch well consistently. Boston experienced a similar situation when they brought in Rick Porcello, though it’s worth noting that David Price struggled similarly to Greinke.

Porcello was dreadful in his first season with the Red Sox but made the proper adjustments this season to win 22 games and finish with a 3.15 ERA.  It’s hard to compare Greinke, a career ace, to Porcello, but the similarities are clear.

While Lovullo wasn’t fully responsible for Boston’s resurgence, he was a key factor toward the end of 2015 in restoring the franchise’s confidence.

It’s also entirely possible that the Red Sox would like to retain Lovullo, and in order to do so, they would have to fire Farrell.  It’s difficult to see Boston doing so after winning 93 games, but the implosion of the team and Farrell’s inability to correct things in the postseason could be enough to convince Dave Dombrowski that the team needs a change.

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If Lovullo is chosen as Arizona’s manager, he’ll be in a strikingly similar situation to Boston – one where he persevered, and eventually thrived.