D-backs tap Hale as next manager
PHOENIX -- The Diamondbacks put together a rating system for their managerial candidates, chief baseball officer Tony La Russa said, grading them on one-to-five scale on leadership, handling of pitching, offensive creativity, personality and experience.
La Russa was not willing to share the scores for the nine candidates interviewed, but he probably didn't have to.
Chip Hale, who won as a college player, a minor league manager and most recently as the bench coach of the Oakland A's, came out on top again.
"Chip scored high," La Russa said after Hale was introduced at a Monday news conference at Chase Field. "It was the completeness of his background and the way he presented himself. We were looking for a leader and a guy that knows baseball, and there wasn't a box that he didn't have checked."
Hale, 49, signed a two-year contract with a team option for 2017 to become the seventh manager in D-backs history. He replaces Kirk Gibson, who was fired three days before the end of a 2014 season in which the injury-beset D-backs finishes with the worst record in the majors, 64-98.
Hale has been here before. He worked in the D-backs' organization as a minor league manager and major league coach for years beginning in 2000. Hale spent the past five years on major league staffs, the third base coach with the New York Mets for two years and the bench coach in Oakland under former D-backs manager Bob Melvin. The two worked together with the D-backs in 2006-09, and Hale called Melvin his mentor.
"It feels like coming home again," said Hale, who won the 1986 NCAA championship under Jerry Kindall at the Arizona and still lives in Tucson.
"This is the perfect job for me and my family."
Hale recalled attending all four World Series games at then-Bank One Ballpark in 2001 with his son, Jack.
"That was one of the most exciting times I have felt as a fan. I want to bring that feeling back to this ball park," Hale said.
"We are going to get a culture here about winning, about having fun, about being competitive in the clubhouse, having pride. It is important for me to re-instill this here and get us back where we belong. I talk about over-achieving, it has always been my thought from rookie league to Triple-A managing to bench coach in Oakland, whoever I was in charge of, I try to get a little more out of each guy. You never know what you can do until you push them a little harder."
The D-backs also interviewed former NL manager of the year Jim Tracy, Cincinnati bench coach Jay Bell, Cleveland bench coach Sandy Alomar Jr., Chicago White Sox third base coach Joe McEwing, and internal candidates Phil Nevin, Andy Green and Turner Ward. They received permission to speak to Kansas City bench coach Don Wakamatsu and Los Angeles Dodgers third base coach Lorenzo Bundy but did not interview either.
Dave McKay is expected to remain as the first base/base running coach, and La Russa seemed to indicate pitching coach Mike Harkey and bullpen coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr. will remain. That leaves a bench coach, third base coach, hitting coach and a seventh coach to be hired. Tracy, an 11-year veteran major league manager, was not interested in joining the staff as a bench coach.
"We wanted a guy who would give us the best chance to communicate with our players in the clubhouse," Stewart said. "Chemistry is important. We wanted a guy with energy, a guy who was optimistic and will energize our ball club and be a part of the culture moving forward."
La Russa said the D-backs identified Hale as their top choice on Friday, and the hiring committee spent Sunday night with Hale in discussions over dinner at Tarbell's on East Camelback Road.
"When you sit in a room with people like that and you sit down to talk baseball, you know that his is the place you want to be. I felt like this is where I belonged," Hale said.
Hale was a finalist for manager's job with the Mets before the 2012 season and with Seattle last winter, and he is widely believed to have been the runner-up when the Mariners hired Lloyd McClendon. Hale was given permission to speak to the Twins about their vacancy last week, but he chose not to pursue that until the D-backs situation was resolved.
Hale was on the D-backs' coaching staff when Melvin left in a messy split in May, 2009, two years after the D-backs won the NL West at 90-72, the only team in major league history to win 90 games and a division title while being outscored during the regular season. Pitching coach Bryan Price quit the staff when Melvin left, and both Hale and Gibson were passed over when A.J. Hinch was promoted to manager from director of player development, with the D-backs citing organizational advocacy.
"There was an integrity thing that happened here when Bob Melvin was let go, and he and Bryan ... a lot of us who were watching from other places said, 'Whoa, put a check mark next to those two names'" as professionals to keep an eye on, La Russa said.
Although he has no major league managing experience, Hale had a string of successes while managing in the D-backs' minor league system from 2000-06. He was Baseball America's 2001 Rookie-level minor league manager of the year at Short-season Missoula in 2001 and led Double-A El Paso to the Texas League championship in 2002.
He led Triple-A Tucson to the Pacific Coast League and Triple-A championships in 2006, when the Sidewinders were a minor league-best 91-53. His 233 victories and .540 winning percentage in three seasons as Tucson's manager (2004-06) are franchise records.
"He's won everywhere he's been," D-backs president/CEO Derrick Hall said. "That was a big selling point. We wanted a leader but we wanted a winner. This guys teaches the game the right way. He gets players to run through a wall for him. If you look at any great manager, for the most part, they had a similar path to him.
"It was time."
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