In the Yankees’ search for the next A.J. Hinch or Dave Roberts, they went to someone who’s coached alongside Roberts with the Dodgers the past two years, Chris Woodward.
Like Roberts, Woodward is young, played in the majors and has some coaching experience.
And Woodward thinks he picked up quite a bit from being so close to Roberts as a third base coach with the Dodgers after three seasons coaching in the Seattle organization.
“I got to watch him grow,’’ Woodward said after being the fifth person to interview to become the next Yankees’ manager. “That was the biggest thing I took away.”
Woodward, 41, noted how “open-minded” Roberts is and commended his ability to appease both the front office and his roster.
“The players, at times, would get frustrated because they weren’t playing as much as they thought they should,’’ Woodward said during a conference call Saturday. “But then people started to realize this was a recipe for success. Once they bought in and accepted their role, we continued to move forward.”
And Roberts’ personality played a major role in that change, according to Woodward.
“Dave never broke stride,” Woodward said. “He was relentlessly positive.”
Roberts was able to get the Dodgers to within one win of their first World Series title since 1988 and Woodward would be entering a job with high expectations, as well.
Woodward played parts of 12 years in the majors and has some familiarity with New York, playing two seasons with the Mets from 2005-06. And he spent most of spring training with the Yankees in 2008 competing for a utility job before being released late in camp.
He followed Yankees bench coach Rob Thomson, former Indians and Mariners manager Eric Wedge, TV analyst and ex-Yankee Aaron Boone and Giants bench coach Hensley Meulens in talking to the Yankees about taking over for Joe Girardi.
Woodward said he got a call from Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, Andrew Friedman, saying Brian Cashman was interested in him. Woodward’s only managerial experience came in 2016, when he managed New Zealand in World Baseball Classic qualifying.
And he is confident that being with the Dodgers also prepared him for the spotlight in The Bronx.
“There’s a lot of parallels,’’ Woodward said of the two situations. “Big market team, a lot of expectations. They’re young [with] a bunch of [homegrown] guys from the minor leagues making impacts.”
He also admired the personality of the Yankees’ team that reached the ALCS.
“They play with a ton of energy and love to have fun on the field,” Woodward said. “They really ignited a passion in the Stadium. I would feed off of that. I love that about the game and love the diversity of the team.”
But Woodward is also perhaps more advanced in the analytics department than some of the other candidates. He got his degree in business management during the latter part of his playing career and spoke about the importance of using the information given to him properly, saying teams would be “fools” not to utilize it.“As a coach, it took the progression from Seattle to L.A. for me to understand the benefit of it,’’ Woodward said. “There’s so much available … The most important aspect is the players on the field.
You can have the smartest people in the world [in the front office], but if the players don’t buy in, it doesn’t really factor in.”