CINCINNATI -- The Reds have already interviewed 11 managerial candidates, but there will soon be another contender added, making it a dozen. Reds president of baseball operations Dick Williams told MLB.com on Thursday that the club would meet with one more person this week, but declined to name the candidate.
Otherwise, Williams was pleased with how the process has played out to this point. The Reds hope to have a manager in place by the end of October.
"We're just continuing to drill down on the candidates that we have," Williams said. "We started our process early because we knew we wanted to cast a wide net. We haven't done a search like this since I've been here. We felt like it was important to expose ourselves to different candidates with different backgrounds to find the best fit for us in our current situation. We don't want to rush through it."
After Bryan Price was relieved of his duties on April 19, Jim Riggleman took over on an interim basis.
The Reds have certainly made the selection process expansive, having already interviewed Riggleman, former Red Sox manager John Farrell, former Yankees manager Joe Girardi, Giants vice president of player development David Bell, former Tigers manager Brad Ausmus, Giants bench coach Hensley Meulens, Rays bench coach Charlie Montoyo, Pirates bench coach Tom Prince and Reds coaches Pat Kelly, Billy Hatcher and Freddie Benavides.
"We're trying to be as diligent as we can and consider as many alternatives as we can," Williams said. "We've had to invest a lot more time because we've been deeper. We thought it was worth it."
The second round of interviews is expected to begin next week. According to Williams, no one has been told that they are out of the running. He declined to name the number of candidates that would move on to getting second interviews.
"It will be cut down a lot," Williams said.