57) Tony DeFrancesco
Tony DeFrancesco was a senior advisor in baseball operations for the New York Mets for 2021 but with their front office changes this offseason, it’s unclear if he is still with the organization or not. But he has been a managerial candidate in recent years for some teams.
DeFrancesco, 58, was the Mets first base coach (and interim third base coach when third base coach Gary DiSarcina was out for COVID-19) in 2020 which is the only time in nearly a decade that he has been on an MLB coaching staff. He has a lot of minor league coaching and managerial experience, though.
DeFrancesco retired as a player after the 1992 season and after making it to Triple-A. He started managing in 1994 and, with the exception of 2008, he managed in every season in the minors between 1994 and 2019 for Oakland (1994-2007, 2009-10), with Houston (2011-2017), and with the Mets (2018-2019).
He managed one season at Rookie-ball, two seasons at Short-Season A, two at Advanced-A, four at Double-A, and 16 at Triple-A (2003-2007, 2009-19). He has a career minor league record of 1778-1551 (.534 winning percentage). In his 16 seasons at Triple-A alone, his teams won eight division titles, four PCL Championships, and two Triple-A National Championships.
The only season he didn’t manage in the minors from 1994 through 2019 was 2008 when he was the third base coach for the Oakland A’s. He also didn’t manage the entire 2012 season at Triple-A as he became the interim MLB manager for the Astros after Brad Mills was fired with 41 games left in the season.
DeFrancesco interviewed with the Astros for their full-time managerial opening after he was their interim manager (they hired Bo Porter) and he was one of three finalists with the Mets before they hired Luis Rojas before the 2020 season.