14) Miguel Cairo
Miguel Cairo is entering his second season as the bench coach for the Chicago White Sox.
Cairo, 47, spent parts of 17 seasons in the majors and he became Tony La Russa’s bench coach after he played for him in 2001 through 2003 and again in 2007 with the Cardinals. La Russa, who is already a Hall of Fame manager, brought Cairo on as his bench coach to, essentially, groom Cairo into a future MLB manager.
Previously, Cairo was the minor league infield coordinator for the Yankees from 2018 through 2020. Prior to that, he was the interim bench coach for the Cincinnati Reds in 2013 and a special assistant to the GM for the Reds from 2013 through 2017.
He took the special assistant job after he decided to retire as a player after the 2012 season and he was interim bench coach after third base coach Mark Berry missed time since he had cancer and bench coach Chris Speier became the interim third base coach.
15) Joe McEwing
Joe McEwing is another former player that played for Tony La Russa in 1998 and 1999 and, like with Cairo, La Russa is grooming him to become a future manager.
McEwing, 49, joined the White Sox organization as a minor league coach for the 2008 season, right after he announced his retirement from playing. In that season, he was their Triple-A hitting coach but he became a manager for the White Sox at the Advanced-A level in 2009. He spent two seasons there before getting promoted to Triple-A manager in 2011.
Since 2012, he has been on the White Sox MLB staff as third base coach (2012-2016, 2021-present) and as bench coach (2017-2020).
He has been on the radar as a potential MLB manager before as, among others, the Tigers and Mets interviewed him for their managerial openings for the 2018 season and he was a candidate for the Cardinals managerial job this offseason.