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Texas Rangers Name Three Finalists for Manager Job

ByEd Carroll|
Apr 6, 2014; St. Petersburg, FL, USA; Texas Rangers hat and glove lay in the dugout against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. Texas Rangers defeated the Tampa Bay Rays 3-0. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 6, 2014; St. Petersburg, FL, USA; Texas Rangers hat and glove lay in the dugout against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. Texas Rangers defeated the Tampa Bay Rays 3-0. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

The finalists for the vacant Texas Rangers managerial opening are interim manager Tim Bogar, Pittsburgh Pirates third base coach Jeff Banister, and Cleveland Indians bullpen coach Kevin Cash.

The Texas Rangers have narrowed the field of candidates to replace former manager Ron Washington down to three, and Rangers interim manager Tim Bogar, who has been considered the favorite for the position, is now the only internal candidate remaining. The Rangers don’t have a timetable, but could announce a hire as soon as the end of the week.

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Longtime Pittsburgh Pirates coach Jeff Banister is also a finalist, as is Cleveland Indians bullpen coach Kevin Cash, who was playing for the Rangers’ Triple-A team in Round Rock as recently as the 2011 season. None of the three have ever been a full-time manager before, and it’s interesting to note that all of the candidates have ties to Pirates manager Clint Hurdle and Indians manager Terry Francona, two of the more respected managers in the league.

Banister has been a coach in some capacity since 1993, when he was a player-coach with the Carolina Mudcats, and in an interesting bit of trivia, owns a 1.000 career MLB batting average, due to a single in his only at bat. Cash has considerably less experience as a coach, joining the Indians with Francona after the 2012 season, but Cleveland’s bullpen is regarded as one of the better corps in the game, and Cash is given immense credit for this.

Texas pitching coach Mike Maddux, once a candidate for the manager job, is not a finalist, but apparently is preparing for next season as if he will remain in the organization:

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