BOSTON (AP) — Texas Rangers pitching coach Mike Maddux has withdrawn from consideration for the manager’s job with the Boston Red Sox.
He had been scheduled for an interview Tuesday, but Boston general manager Ben Cherington announced Monday that Maddux had withdrawn. The job opened when Terry Francona left following the team’s epic collapse in September, when it went 7-20 and missed the playoffs.
Maddux pitched for nine teams, including the Red Sox, in a 15-year career that ended in 2000. He became pitching coach of the Milwaukee Brewers in 2003, then took the same job with Texas before the 2009 season.
The Red Sox already have interviewed Philadelphia bench coach Pete Mackanin and Milwaukee hitting coach Dale Sveum. They plan to interview Cleveland bench coach Sandy Alomar Jr.
Maddux, also a candidate for the Chicago Cubs managerial opening, said in a statement it was a family decision that led him to withdraw from consideration.
“My wife and two daughters are together in the same state for the first time in three years and words cannot describe my happiness,” he said. “The game of baseball has many sacrifices but being apart from family is the toughest. I feel there is too much distance between the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and Boston to see my family as much as I’d enjoy.
“Again, I thank Ben Cherington and the Boston Red Sox for the flattery, honor, and compliment of considering me for their position.”
• • •
CHICAGO — Dale Sveum felt as though he was seeing the same pitch again when he interviewed for the Chicago Cubs’ managing job.
The Milwaukee Brewers’ hitting coach says Monday the process mirrored what he went through in Boston last week, with management firing similar questions his way and putting him through a game simulation.
Whether he gets a chance to replace Mike Quade in Chicago or Terry Francona on the Red Sox bench remains to be seen.
Sveum says those are the “two most prestigious jobs in baseball, if not sports.”
Comments are no longer available on this story