The White Sox have opted to
not renew Tim Raines' contract.
If I had a guess, Sandy Alomar seems like the logical choice to replace him, because
some quotes during his acquistion seemed to indicate that would be in the plans. But obviously, Alomar wasn't a factor when Raines' contract wasn't renewed with those of the rest of the staff, including Greg Walker, Harold Baines, Don Cooper, Joey Cora and Art Kusnyer.
Back in May
when these deals were reached, the team said that the decision was up to Raines, with
the original story saying, "Only bench coach Tim Raines has not reached terms of a new contract
yet, and the team said he will wait to evaluate his situation until the
end of the season."
It turns out the decision wasn't up to Raines. The
Sox pulled the plug on this situation, and the whole situation is bizarre.
It has to, on some level, be related to Harold Baines' flip-flopping on his thoughts about his coaching career. Before the season, Baines said he'd be done with coaching after his contract was up. All of a sudden, he's coaching first base in Tucson while Raines took over bench coach duties. Then Harold signs the three-year deal in May. And now Raines isn't returning in any capacity. What's up with that?
Maybe under Harold's stoic facade is a scheming, double-crossing saboteur? Doubtful. I'm sure this is more between Ozzie and Rock, but I'm not certain to what degree.
I'm also not certain about the effect will have on this team, but I'm highly skeptical that this will be for the better. At least when Scott Podsednik was healthy, the Sox were a very effective base-stealing team when Raines coached first; not so much with Harold manning the box. That's not to say it's causation; heck, any degree of correlation can't really be established. I'm just sayin'.
Also, there are the minor points that Raines is by far the
most accomplished major-leaguer on the staff, as well as the most energetic. In terms of charisma, I'd say the Sox aides rank in this order:
Raines -->
Cooper -->
Walker -->
Cora -->
Kusnyer -->
Gatorade cooler -->
batting donut -->
HaroldAlomar would probably fit somewhere in between Walker and Kusnyer, I'm guessing, but he hasn't shown he's any sort of go-getter either.
I don't know if this means anything. Maybe Ozzie thought he could find a better bench coach than Raines, which is possible considering Raines didn't move to the bench by choice. At the same time, I'm still confused as to why Raines was moved off first in the first place. Perhaps some salty quotes from Raines to a reporter will get Ozzie to explain more fully.
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE: Joe Cowley's article says Ozzie wasn't thrilled with Raines' work ethic, though it doesn't go into greater detail. However, this paragraph stood out to me:
While Guillen never said why Raines was not given an extension,
sources indicated he was not thrilled with Raines' work ethic all the
time, even though it had improved over this last season.
With the Sox down a coach, Baines could return to bench duties, which would leave Guillen needing a first-base coach.
But I thought Baines -- wait, wasn't Raines -- my head hurts.