Chip Hale Leaves Oakland for Arizona

Chip Hale is leaving Oakland to manage the Arizona Diamondbacks. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Chip Hale, bench coach for the Oakland Athletics, has been offered the vacant manager position for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Hale, who spent most of his major league career with the Minnesota Twins, is the most recent in a growing list of A’s associates that have made their way to the Diamondbacks following Tony LaRussa and Dave Stewart. Upon Dave Stewart’s acceptance of the general manager position, Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson, famous for hitting a homerun off of Dennis Eckersley in game 1 of the 1988 world series which featured La Russa and Stewart, was fired.

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For Chip Hale, this is a return to Arizona. During Bob Melvin‘s tenure as the Diamondbacks manager, Hale acted as a coach and had previously managed their AAA affiliate where he was named Pacific Coast League manager of the year. Hale was signed by the Athletics in 2011, coming from the New York Mets, and preceded his former manager to Oakland. The 49 year old San Jose native is also an alum of the University of Arizona and spends much of his time in Arizona during the off season.

The Diamondbacks have been in a constant state of flux this past season, losing a GM, manager and posting a dismal 64-98 win/loss record after three consecutive .500+ seasons, one of which (2011) resulting in a post season berth. In May of 2014, Arizona hired Tony La Russa as Chief Baseball Officer in an attempt to right the sinking ship.

Chip Hale will have some familiar faces in his lineup with former Athletics Cliff Pennington and Trevor Cahill in their current lineup.

It has not been announced by the Oakland Athletics who will replace Chip Hale as the bench coach. The most obvious candidate for the job is their current hitting coach Chili Davis. Rumors have circulated that the Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs and New York Yankees were interested in having Davis coach for them. Davis has said nothing publicly about a possible east coast migration but one would have to assume that a promotion to bench coach in Oakland would at least make him reconsider such a move. To lose both Chili and Chip in the same year would surely drive up the value of those platters we all got last year!

Shortly after the announcement of Chip Hale’s departure, Susan Slusser speculated on the most likely replacement in Oakland noting Aldrete’s ties with Melvin and his desire to work closer to his Monterey home.

Best of luck to Chip Hale in Arizona.