Detroit Tigers hire Arizona Diamondbacks’ bench coach Ron Gardenhire as manager

The Detroit Tigers will be hiring Ron Gardenhire as their next manager, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Gardenhire was brought on board to be Torey Lovullo's second-in command last November, bringing a wealth of managerial experience alongside the rookie Lovullo. Ron had been manager of the Minnesota Twins for 13 seasons, from 2002-14, compiling a record of 1068-1039 and taking them to the playoffs on six occasions. However, the Twins lost their last 12 playoff games under him, including three consecutive Division Series sweeps. [The streak reached 13 with their wild-card exit at the hands of the Yankees this season]

After leaving the Minnesota dugout at the end of the 2014 season, he stuck around the Twins organization as a special assistant. But he still wanted to get back into an active role, and jumped to Arizona when given the opportunity to work with Lovullo. Gardenhire said at the time, “I talked to a lot of people that know him as a great baseball guy, who is a young manager, his first time out there, and that’s exciting. For him to call me and ask me to help him out, I thought that was pretty cool.” Gardenhire had also recently interviewed for the vacant Boston Red Sox position - a spot which Lovullo himself could have been in line for, had he stayed in that organization.

With Torey now having a full year of his own managerial experience under his belt, it’s likely he won’t need such a veteran presence alongside him in the D-backs dugout for 2018. It will be interesting to see who the Diamondbacks select as a replacement.