Former failed manager hired as Yankees' bench coach minutes after name emerges

Oh, fantastic, the Yankees have interviewed someone with significant managerial experience for their bench coach role? Aw, darn, all of that "experience" was failure-related. Nevertheless!

Since Carlos Mendoza departed for the Mets' managerial job, garnering nothing but rave reviews, the Yankees' dugout seat by Aaron Boone's side has been empty. Early rumors indicated the team would re-sign Luis Rojas and install him safely outside the third base coaching box (happy now, John Schneider?!), but once the vacancy actually became official, the team grew reticent to promote from within. Instead, their stated desire was to bring in an outside candidate ... which was harder than it sounded.

David Ross only wanted to return to the game after his Cubs axing if he could do so as a manager. Pass. Carlos Beltrán was announced as a member of David Stearns' Mets advisory staff, continuing his work from 2023. Joe Espada was named the Astros' manager (finally). Andrew Bailey became the Red Sox pitching coach. Eric Chavez was made Mets bench coach. So ... who's left?

Brad Ausmus is left! Ausmus, a 2023 candidate for the Astros' GM job (against all odds), reportedly interviewed for the Yankees' open job and emerged as a "strong candidate" to take on the role on Tuesday afternoon.

About 15 minutes later, Joel Sherman amended his initial report and confirmed that it progressed one step further. You're hired!

Yankees hire Brad Ausmus as bench coach

When Ausmus was first elevated to the Detroit Tigers' managerial role in 2014, he took arguably the most talented first-round playoff exiting roster of all time to their untimely demise, swept at the hands of the Baltimore Orioles with Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer and Anibal Sanchez in the rotation. His Tigers teams fluctuated the next several years, bottoming out at 98 losses prior to him being dismissed at the end of the 2017 season.

Predictably, he floated directly to Anaheim, advising Billy Eppler in the Angels' front office before surviving only one of the three years of the "three-year contract" he signed to be the team's manager in 2019.

The Angels, of course, have long been the franchise where half-baked ideas go to melt and former proven failures float to see what depths they can plummet to. Perhaps now the Yankees have become a similar spot.

Ausmus, who looks like a manager, sounds like a manager, but isn't a manager, will now get another chance to influence the Yankees' operations. Luckily, those superficial qualities also kind of describe the entire idea of a bench coach. Ideally, there will be no harm for this minor foul.

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