Sandy Alomar Jr. stepped in as the interim manager for the Cleveland Indians for the final six games of 2012, and now he may just have a shot at returning as the team's manager for 2013 and beyond. Alomar interviewed for the full-time manager position on Thursday, but he's up against veteran skipper Terry Francona -- who will interview on Friday.
When asked whether Francona's 1,000+ wins, five postseason appearances and two World Series championships (2004 and 2007) makes him the favorite to land the position, Indians general manager Chris Antonetti told reporters that there is no favorite at this point (via Yahoo! Sports):
''I can tell you that Sandy is held in very high regard among our players ... I wouldn't give anyone a leg up in the process. We feel good about the two initial candidates that we have identified.''
Alomar played for the Indians from 1990-2000 and he previously served on Manny Acta's coaching staff as third base coach and bench coach. Francona makes upwards of $1.7 million in his analyst job with ESPN, so Alomar will likely come at a lesser price than someone as accomplished as Francona.