Blue Jays Bench Coach Demarlo Hale Emerges In Nationals Managerial Hunt

Apr 19, 2013; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Blue Jays bench coach DeMarlo Hale works with the lineup prior to a game against the New York Yankees at the Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY SportsToronto Blue Jays bench coach DeMarlo Hale is a popular man this time of the year. It seems like every October his name emerges in the various conversations for open managerial roles around the league. That doesn’t appear to be changing any time soon.

According to Adam Kilgore at the Washington Post, Hale was interviewed for the Washington Nationals open manager role “sometime in the past two weeks” and that the Nationals were indeed considering Hale as a viable candidate for the role previously held by Davey Johnson.

Hale joins a group of candidates that include current Nationals bench coach Randy Knorr and first base coach Trent Jewett, as well as Arizona Diamondbacks third base coach Matt Williams, and another perennial candidate, Padres assistant Brad Ausmus.

Of course, Hale seems to be a perennial candidate, having been previously mentioned as a candidate in Seattle Mariners in 2009, Toronto in 2011, and the Chicago Cubs in 2012. Hale has held coaching positions for the Texas Rangers, Boston Red Sox, Baltimore Orioles, and last season as Toronto’s bench coach.

Of course, Kilgore also goes on to mention that Hale satisfies Major League Baseball’s minority interviewing policy, the league’s version of the NFL’s Rooney Rule. He quickly dispels that the Nationals were only interested in interviewing Hale to satisfy the rule. However, was there any real need to mention it at all other than to incite some sort of response from a reader, like me I suppose.

Regardless, Hale has been a prominent figure on some solid teams and is well regarded in coaching circles, so his time will certainly come at some point. If it comes around with the Nationals, then the search for a new bench coach will begin anew.