Arizona Diamondbacks, 2 other MLB teams fire managers

PHOENIX — The additions of pitchers Zack Greinke and Shelby Miller had the Arizona Diamondbacks facing upgraded expectations this season.

When the team took a step back instead of forward, something had to change.

General manager Dave Stewart and manager Chip Hale will not be back. Chief Baseball Officer Tony La Russa will be, though it’s unclear in what role.

Coming off a second disappointing season, the Diamondbacks parted ways with Stewart and Hale on Monday in the latest shake-up for an organization seeking consistency.

“We did not see the trend line moving in the right direction,” Diamondbacks managing general partner Ken Kendrick said.

The Diamondbacks won the World Series in 2001 and had a brief resurgence a decade later by winning the NL West.

Arizona has been in a steady decline since then, posting five straight non-winning seasons.

The Diamondbacks brought in La Russa in 2014 and among his first moves was bringing in Stewart and Hale, elevating them to positions they had never held at the big-league level before.

Arizona went 79-83 last season and was expecting better things after signing former AL Cy Young Award winner Greinke to a $206 million deal and trading for Miller.

Instead, the Diamondbacks took a step back. They started slow and never recovered, finishing with a 69-93 record to miss the playoffs for the fifth consecutive season.

Now the franchise will be searching for a fifth GM and fifth manager since 2010. The team is deciding on what role La Russa will have, but Kendrick said it will not be manager.

“We want to have more consistent baseball and championship-caliber baseball, year-in and year-out,” Diamondbacks CEO Derrick Hall said.

A four-time 20-game winner as a player, Stewart had previously worked in the front offices for Oakland, San Diego and Toronto before landing his first general manager’s job.

Hale played seven major league seasons with Minnesota and the Los Angeles Dodgers before getting into coaching. He worked as Bob Melvin’s bench coach for three seasons before being hired as a big-league manager for the first time with Arizona. He previously worked nine seasons in Arizona’s organization and spent two seasons with the New York Mets.

Arizona has made some questionable moves over the past couple of seasons, including an $8.25 million contract with Cuban right-hander Yoan Lopez, who has considered leaving the game.

The Diamondbacks also were criticized for the deal that brought Miller to the desert, which sent outfielder Ender Inciarte and shortstop Dansby Swanson, Arizona’s top draft pick in 2015, to Atlanta. Miller struggled his first season with Arizona, going 3-12 with a 6.15 ERA.

Arizona did pull off the most surprising offseason deal prior to the 2016 season, luring Greinke away from top teams that had been pursuing him. Greinke showed flashes of still being one of baseball’s best pitchers, but was inconsistent most of the season. He won a team-high 13 games, but also had a 4.37 ERA, second-highest of his career.

Arizona’s pitching staff struggled as a whole, finishing with a baseball-worst 5.11 ERA.

COLORADO ROCKIES

The relationship between Walt Weiss and his general manager deteriorated over the last several months. He and Jeff Bridich certainly see eye-to-eye on this: The Colorado Rockies have quite a few of the pieces in place to be a contender.

Next step, finding a new manager.

Weiss is out as manager of the Rockies after four seasons. In a statement Monday, the Rockies said Weiss decided to step down.

However, he really didn’t have a job to come back to because his contract expired after the season finale. Bridich, who took over as GM two years ago, will now get to select his own manager.

The Rockies finished 75-87 this season, their best record since 2010.

“It was time to move on,” Bridich said in a conference call. “We both put in a lot of work to try to make the relationship work. I’m proud of that. It could’ve been different when changes were made in the front office two years ago. In our working together and conversations over those 24 months, we decided together that we were going to move forward and make a true effort at continuity, and making this thing work and creating a shared vision. In the end, it did not take place.”

Bridich said there is no timeline for a replacement. The team plans to interview external candidates as well as internal ones such as Glenallen Hill, who finished up his fourth season as manager of the Rockies’ Triple-A affiliate.

“One of the things important to relationships is all parties involved work hard to share a vision in how we’re going to move this process along,” Bridich said. “Be the best we can be at the major league level and start to turn ourselves into a playoff-type team. That doesn’t happen overnight. Those things happen over time. I think you have to be real realistic about that.”

Weiss took over a team on Nov. 7, 2012, that was coming off the worst season in franchise history. He was a high school coach at the time with no major league coaching experience. The former big league shortstop learned on the fly and concluded his managerial stint in Colorado with a 283-365 record.

CHICAGO WHITE SOX

Rick Renteria is getting a second chance to manage in Chicago, this time on the South Side.

The White Sox promoted Renteria from bench coach to replace Robin Ventura on Monday, hoping he can help turn around a struggling franchise.

Renteria takes over a team with one playoff appearance since the 2005 championship year. And he gets another opportunity after the Cubs unceremoniously let him go after the 2014 season so they could hire Joe Maddon.

“I’m extremely excited,” Renteria said. “It’s a little bittersweet because I became good friends with Robin.”

The White Sox noted that Renteria is the only Latino manager in the majors and touted his ability to communicate in English and Spanish.

General manager Rick Hahn said the organization might have found candidates as good — but none better — had they looked elsewhere. He also insisted Renteria would be the right man to lead the team whether it is undergoing a major overhaul or trying to contend. To that end, Hahn said the White Sox know which way they want to go; he just wasn’t about to reveal it.

“Regardless of the direction, we think he’s capable of winning a World Series with the right personnel behind him,” he said. “Even if we do go to the extreme of tearing this thing down, so to speak, our goal is to get ourselves back to the World Series, and our hope is to do it with this manager.”

Hahn said Ventura first told him just over a month ago that he thought it was time for the organization to make a change in the dugout. Hahn said there were “personal reasons behind it” and added that Ventura “spoke highly” of Renteria.

Hahn said he did not try to persuade Ventura — who had an expiring contract — to return next season. And when asked if he could have returned if he wanted, Hahn said, “That’s a hypothetical that we never got to.”

Ventura announced Sunday after the final game against Minnesota that he would not return, insisting the decision was his and he wasn’t pushed out despite five seasons without a playoff appearance.

The White Sox went 375-435 but finished with losing records the past four years after an 85-77 debut in 2012. They finished fourth in the AL Central at 78-84 despite a 23-10 start that gave them a six-game lead in the AL Central on May 9. They went 55-74 the rest of the way thanks to injuries, a slumping offense and struggling bullpen.