5 potential candidates to replace Joe Maddon as Cubs manager

4. Mark Loretta

Another former player with 15 years of experience in the MLB, Mark Loretta was added to the Cubs coaching staff last winter to replace Brandon Hyde, who now manages the Baltimore Orioles. Loretta had been serving as a special assistant to the front office in San Diego, and was a former front office-mate of Cubs current general manager Jed Hoyer. The Cubs added Loretta to the coaching staff to help communication between the players, the coaches and the front office.

In a quote from last year on Chicago radio station 670 The Score, Loretta outlined what exactly his role was with the team in 2019.

"“So I think Jed (Hoyer), Theo (Epstein) and Joe, what they’re asking me to do is be that liaison between Joe and the players and the office, quite frankly as well, because in this day and age there’s so much integration between a front office and staff and players. I’m just really going to forge as good of relationships as I can with the players. Sometimes players feel more comfortable going to a coach than a manager just because of the manager’s seat. So I understand that. I’ll also be involved more so on the hitting side and the infield side because that’s sort of my strengths.”"

Adding a guy like Loretta, who’s a career .295 hitter and has a career fielding percentage of .989, to the Cubs who are coming off their worst defensive season under Joe Maddon and can’t seem to find consistency with their offense makes tons of sense. And with his background as a front-office employee and his impressive communication skills, Loretta has already been tabbed a front-runner for the Cubs manager position, per Jon Heyman.

Cubs will be hard-pressed to find another candidate that checks as many boxes as Loretta already has for them.