This time (so far) it’s not Ron Washington or Walt Weiss that the Atlanta Braves could lose.
According to a report from Detroit Tigers beat reporter for MLB.com Jason Beck, that team has spoken with Atlanta Braves catching coach Sal Fasano.
Tigers have also talked with Braves coach Sal Fasano about their managerial job, according to sources.
— Jason Beck (@beckjason) October 26, 2020
He’s not nearly the only candidate, for this job, but it is interesting that the Tigers would walk to talk with the former Royal/Athletic/Rockie/Angel/Oriole/Phillie/Yankee/Blue Jays/Indian who managed to cobble together a career of 11 seasons — spread over 13 years.
Fasano’s stats read like the prototypical career journeyman backup catcher — never appearing in more than 78 games in a single season (2006), hitting .221 with a .687 OPS. He also slugged 47 homers in 1245 plate appearances.
Still: he’s clearly seen a bunch of different managers and managerial styles while being with teams that were both bad/rebuilding and (occasionally) in first place.
Right now, the Tigers are clearly a group in the former phase: bad and looking for a way up.
Chances that Atlanta loses Sal?
Ehhhh…. maybe not that great, but there’s a bit of a conundrum among the known candidates… never mind that there are about a dozen names in play.
Among them are Yankees 3B coach Phil Nevin and also their bench coach Carlos Mendoza (source: Jason Beck again).
BleacherReport.com also notes that former Brave and current A’s quality control coach Mark Kotsay has also had an interview with the Tigers… among multiple others (Fredi Gonzalez included).
But there’s this note:
Source tells me Pirates bench coach Don Kelly recently interviewed with Tigers about their open manager job. However, he's not a top candidate due to his lack of big league coaching experience.
— RobBiertempfel (@RobBiertempfel) October 19, 2020
Another source says Pirates coaching staff is expected to return intact in 2021.
Turns out most of the candidates mentioned have had no MLB managerial experience, though — Fasano included. So it’s unclear whether Biertempfel is mis-reading the tea leaves on what the Tigers want or if that’s less of a criteria than he expected.
The early betting line has former/suspended Astros manager A.J. Hinch in line for this position. But MLB rules, they can’t really just give his the job without looking around first — particularly at minorities. Seems that this requirement has been met in spades.
The 49-year-old Fasano isn’t completely devoid of experience, though. In fact, he may have originally caught the Tigers’ attention as manager for the nearby single-A minor league Lansing Lugnuts in 2009 (Blue Jays).
He moved up to the AA level in 2010 and 2011, later taking the helm of the Mobile Bay Bears (now the Rocket City Trash Pandas) of the Southern League in 2017.
Immediately after that season ended, he latched on with the Atlanta Braves — and he’s still with this organization.