After listening to Ron Roenicke during his weekly appearance on OMF Wednesday afternoon, there is no doubt how he hopes things shake out after 2020.
“Certainly,” Roenicke told Glenn Ordway, Christian Fauria and Lou Merloni when asked if he wants to manage in 2021. “Even as crazy and as tough as this season has been, yes. I definitely do. It’s something that I wanted to do. I was gone for a while after I managed Milwaukee, so it wasn’t something I was like, ‘I have to do this again.’ But I wanted to do it again. The challenge of it is what I enjoy so much. Just being able to help guys in all different areas.”
But will he get that chance?
Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom has stated his admiration for the job Roenicke has done since taking over for Alex Cora, particularly during the uncertain times the current pandemic has thrown everyone in Major League Baseball.
But there also hasn't been any definitive statement when the subject of bringing Roenicke back has come up, with both the front office and the manager taking a wait-and-see approach.
"I think they’ve made it clear that we’ll just talk after the season and I think that’s the right way to do it," Roenicke told OMF.
How teams approach their managerial positions is a mystery considering all the uncertainty surrounding the 2020 shortened season
Most of the teams in last-place in their respective divisions, or near the bottom, have managers in their first or second years. The only last-place teams who don't have a manager hired after the 2018 season are Arizona and Washington, and both the Diamondbacks' Torey Lovullo and Nationals' Dave Martinez would certainly seem entrenched in their current positions.
The 64-year-old Roenicke might be the most uncertain of the bunch just because of how dramatic the turnaround in the Red Sox' results have been, with Boston sitting with the worst record in the American League (18-32) after its 8-4 loss to Miami.
But Roenicke, who went 342-331 in five years as the Brewers' manager from 2011-15, certainly would like another crack at it in 2021.
"When you’re a third-base coach, you’re designated really to help the baserunning and you may be in charge of the outfield. If you’re the bench coach, you’ve got a few more responsibilities. When you’re the manager, you can help in all those areas," Roenicke said. “The constant conversation with guys, you can really make a difference. That’s really what I want to do. I want to make a difference and make these guys great player if they have that ability. I want to make them good players if they don’t have quite the ability. And then the other guys are trying to hang on. I want to help them stay in the big leagues because that’s what I had to try to do. Just stay on a team and get as many years as I could. That’s the goal of what I like to do and I’m able to do that as a manager.”