Diamondbacks hire A's bench coach Chip Hale as manager
The Arizona Diamondbacks have hired Chip Hale as their next manager, the team announced Monday.
The news was reported earlier in the day by Bob Nightengale of USA Today.
Hale has served as the bench coach for the Oakland Athletics since 2012. He was reportedly one of Arizona's five finalists for the position, along with former MLB manager Jim Tracy, minor league manager Phil Nevin, Cleveland Indians bench coach Sandy Alomar Jr. and Diamondbacks assistant hitting coach Turner Ward.
That group, minus Hale, was also part of the initial list of candidates announced by the team earlier his month. The last three Diamondbacks managers, including Hale, entered the job with no previous major league managing experience.
Former manager Kirk Gibson and bench coach Alan Trammell were fired near the end of this season, with the Diamondbacks ultimately finishing 64-98 and in last place in the National League West. It was the third straight year the team failed to finish above .500. Gibson went 353-375 in his four-plus seasons as manager.
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Arizona also fired general manager Kevin Towers in September and replaced him with former MLB pitcher Dave Stewart later in the month. Former MLB manager Tony La Russa was hired as the team's chief baseball officer in May.
Hale, 49, spent nine seasons in the Diamondbacks' organization as a coach, first as a manager for several minor league affiliates from 2001-06 and then as a third base and infield coach under then-Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin from 2007-09. He was the New York Mets' third base coach in 2010-11 before leaving to join Melvin with the Athletics in 2012.
In his three seasons with Melvin, Hale helped Oakland to three straight playoff appearances and two AL West division titles, though the team failed to win a postseason series. The A's went 88-74 this season and earned the second AL Wild Card, losing 9-8 in the Wild Card game to the Kansas City Royals.
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Hale also spent six seasons as a player for the Minnesota Twins and Los Angeles Dodgers, last appearing in 1997. He played collegiately for the University of Arizona, helping the team win the College World Series in 1986, and has kept an offseason home in Tucson.
- Ben Estes
