Bob Nightengale of USA Today has been breaking news throughout the week regarding shakeups on the Giants coaching staff and front office. On Wednesday he joined Gary & Larry, and in addition to reporting that the Giants are the front runner for Giancarlo Stanton, he had some interesting things to say regarding the future of Giants manager Bruce Bochy.
Gary asked Nightengale if the changes to the coaching staff are a way of Evans letting Bochy know who’s in charge. Nightengale confirmed that was probably the case, and also went a step further, saying that if there was a clean way to remove Bochy Giants manager, Evans would probably do it.
“You’re probably right,” Evans said in response to the above question. “They’re bringing all these coaches in, making all these changes that weren’t Bruce Bochy’s call, it was Bobby Evans’ call. So you’re probably right on that, but Boch has got two more years left on the contract and he’s going to keep managing, he’s making about $7.5 (million) per year, so he’s not going away.
“You’re absolutely correct, and I think if you put Bobby Evans and those guys on a lie detector test they’d probably say ‘yeah, we’d like to have a new manager as well.’”
Nightengale also reported earlier in the week that former hitting coach Hensley Mulens, who has now been promoted to bench coach, is being groomed as Bochy’s eventual replacement. Per Larry Krueger’s suggestion, Nightengale agreed that the Giants also have a candidate in the front office, new Director of Player Development David Bell.
“They moved him to be the bench coach, so usually a bench coach you’re grooming a guy like that,” Nightengale said of Meulens. “I mean I could see David Bell too, I’m with you there. I would think it would be one of those two guys, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Bell either. I think they’ll see how Meulens does as the bench coach. Obviously kind’ve ends any talk of Ron Wotus being his successor, kind’ve demoting him to third base coach. I could see David Bell. I think it’ll be one of those two for sure.”
Listen to the full interview below. To hear Nightengale’s comments on Bochy, skip to the 1:45 mark.