Report: Gardenhire to Tigers, leaving Cora and Ausmus in running for Red Sox post

To date, the Red Sox have had a small field of candidates from which to choose their next manager.

Late Thursday afternoon, that field got smaller by one third.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported the Detroit Tigers have decided to hire Ron Gardenhire as their next manager. Several other reports confirmed Rosenthal’s story. All that’s reportedly left is for the Tigers to work out a contract with the former Twins manager, who spent last season as Torey Lovullo’s bench coach with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Gardenhire interviewed for the Red Sox’ opening on Wednesday, a day after he interviewed for the Tigers’ vacancy in Detroit. In a text message with BostonSportsJournal.com on Wednesday night, Gardenhire noted “no matter (what happens), it was a pleasure getting to talk about the Sox organization and meeting the group…very classy people.’’

Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski did not immediately respond to a question about whether Gardenhire had officially withdrawn his name from consideration for the Red Sox job.

Gardenhire’s agreement with the Tigers leaves the Sox, at least for now, with just two candidates: Alex Cora and Brad Ausmus.

Cora is widely seen throughout the game as the clear front-runner. A report out of Cora’s native Puerto Rico early Thursday afternoon suggested Cora was already in agreement with the Red Sox and would be introduced as the new manager once the Houston Astros, for whom he's currently serving as bench coach, saw their season conclude. The Astros currently trail the New York Yankees in the ALCS three game to two, with Game 6 set for Friday night.

That report was later taken down, and Red Sox management maintained that no such decision had been reached.

It’s possible that the Sox could still interview other candidates.

Dombrowski earlier was asked whether the Sox intended to widen their net for additional interviews, or if they planned any second interviews with anyone from the group of candidates who already interviewed. Responding in an e-mail before Gardenhire’s hiring was reported, Dombrowski wrote: “We are still contemplating our next steps. So, no decisions on these questions have been determined.’’