(670 The Score) Former Cubs manager Joe Maddon had a blunt response when asked why he believes former World Series-winning manager Ozzie Guillen isn’t a current candidate for the White Sox’s managerial opening.
“Wisdom and experience are no longer desired,” Maddon told David Haugh and Dan Wiederer in an interview on 670 The Score on Wednesday afternoon. “It’s a controllable asset that everybody is looking for. If you really are of your own opinion and you have a method – managers were autonomous (in a prior era) Managers ran things. They were in charge of getting their coaching staff, hiring their coaching staff. I’ve already been contacted by a team about a potential hitting coach (job) that doesn’t even have a manager yet. When people tell you they want the manager to choose their own coaches, it’s not true. Everything needs to be controlled, and that’s where Ozzie, you’re not going to control Ozzie. And I don’t think the next opportunity I get, I don’t want to have that word used around me either. It’s wisdom, experience, feel – they’re terms if you don’t understand what that means, you’re not going to seek that within your ranks. And I think that’s the problem, quite frankly.”
Maddon has been out of the dugout since the Angels fired him in early June. He hasn’t been contacted by any of the five MLB teams – the White Sox, Blue Jays, Rangers, Royals and Marlins – that currently have a managerial opening, he said.
“I got thoughts, I got ambition, but for right now with regards to baseball, I have to be asked first, and I have to be asked by the right people,” Maddon said.
Meanwhile, the White Sox are continuing their managerial search after 78-year-old Tony La Russa announced he was stepping aside due to health issues. The White Sox are expected to make a decision by the end of October. Astros bench coach Joe Esapda and Royals bench coach Pedro Grifol have impressed the team in interviews early on in the process, Jon Morosi of MLB Network recently reported.
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