Report: Arizona Diamondbacks close to naming new manager
The Arizona Diamondbacks are getting ready to name a new manager out of five finalists, and a final decision could come as soon as Sunday night.
MLB.com's Steve Gilbert reported that team president/CEO Derrick Hall, chief baseball officer Tony La Russa, general manager Dave Stewart and senior vice president of baseball operations De Jon Watson are meeting Sunday night to deliberate on their candidates.
"Tony and I will be flying back today, and we'll get together later this evening with Derrick and De Jon," Stewart told Gilbert. "We'll try to put this thing to bed before night's end."
• An early look at the Diamondbacks' candidates
CBS Sports' Jon Heyman reported that the team has narrowed down its search to replace Kirk Gibson to five candidates: Jim Tracy, Chip Hale, Sandy Alomar Jr., Phil Nevin and Turner Ward. Out of those five candidates, the former Pittsburgh Pirates, Los Angeles Dodgers and Colorado Rockies manager Tracy is the only one with previous major-league managerial experience.
Nevin is the manager of Triple-A Toledo, Hale is the Oakland Athletics' bench coach, Alomar is the Cleveland Indians' bench coach and Ward served as an assistant hitting coach in Arizona last season.
"We've been in this process and thinking it and overthinking it and trying to figure out who is going to be the best for our team, as we should," Stewart told Gilbert. "The guy that we pick is my first move as a general manager and Tony's second move in his new position, so we want the right guy."
The Diamondbacks finished the 2014 season with the worst record in baseball at 64-98.
