BOSTON (CBS) – The Boston Red Sox announced their 2012 Major League coaching staff on Friday, with some familiar faces sticking around with Bobby Valentine for next season.

 Tim Bogar has been named bench coach, Bob McClure joins the staff as pitching coach, Alex Ochoa has been appointed first base coach and Jerry Royster has been named third base coach, general manager Ben Cherington and Valentine announced Friday.

 Hitting Coach Dave Magadan and Bullpen Coach Gary Tuck will both return in the same roles they held in 2011.

 The 45-year-old Bogar is in his fourth year with the Red Sox in 2012.  He spent the last two seasons as Boston’s third base coach after joining the club as first base coach before the 2009 campaign.  A former infielder, Bogar played 701 Major League games over nine seasons with the Mets (1993-96), Astros (1997-2000) and Los Angeles Dodgers (2001).

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McClure, 59, recently joined the Red Sox organization as a special assignment scout/instructor.  He spent the last six seasons as the pitching coach for the Kansas City Royals after being named to that position on October 12, 2005.  During his tenure as Kansas City’s pitching coach, he worked with 2009 American League Cy Young Award Winner Zack Greinke and his 2011 staff’s 4.44 ERA was the best single-season mark for the club since 1994. 

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Ochoa, 39, was the hitting coach for Boston’s High-A Salem affiliate last season and his batters led the Carolina League in on-base percentage (.328), and finished third in average (.254) and slugging (.387).  He began his professional coaching career in 2009 as Boston’s staff assistant and served as a special assistant in the Red Sox Baseball Operations department in 2010.  Ochoa is a veteran of eight Major League seasons.

Both Ochoa and Bogar played under Valentine during their time with the Mets.

The 59-year-old Royster has been involved in professional baseball for over 40 years.  He most recently managed the Lotte Giants of the Korea Baseball Organization from 2008-10, becoming the league’s first foreign manager.  He led the Giants to the playoffs in each of his three seasons at the helm.  Royster previously served on Major League coaching staffs as third base coach for the Rockies in 1993 and as the Brewers bench coach from 2000 until taking over as interim manager from April 18, 2002 through the end of that season. 

Major League Baseball’s winter meetings are being held in Dallas, Texas. All of the Boston Red Sox’s top brass will be there. But don’t expect any blockbuster deals like last winter, when the Sox signed Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford. At least, that’s the opinion of The Boston Globe’s Peter Abraham.

That opinion seems to be echoed by WEEI’s Rob Bradford. Although, it’s hard to tell since his latest report on Red Sox winter meetings in Dallas seem to be more about the layout of the hotel lobby and how late the wheeling and dealing often goes into the night at these events.

Other on-line columnists offered the same advice to the Red Sox in Dallas: do nothing. That’s easier said than done. Surely, the Sox will make some deal down there. Who it will be remains to be seen…

Terry Francona, who left the Boston Red Sox in September, is set to be succeeded by Bobby Valentine. Photograph: Patrick Semansky/AP

Bobby Valentine has accepted the job as new manager of the Boston Red Sox, US media reported on Tuesday.

Valentine replaces Terry Francona, who left the club in September after the Red Sox had suffered one of the greatest late-season collapses witnessed in Major League Baseball.

Neither Valentine nor the Red Sox would immediately confirm the agreement but local media, including ESPN, where Valentine worked as a sports analyst, said the deal had been made.

ESPN said Valentine was currently in Japan and would return to America to be formally introduced as the new manager on Thursday.

The 61-year-old played in the Major Leagues between 1969 and 1979 before moving into management, with spells at the Texas Rangers and the New York Mets as well as periods coaching in Japan.

He last managed in the major leagues at the Mets, leaving in 2002.

Valentine left his last management job at Japan’s Chiba Lotte Marines in 2009 and began work as an expert television commentator before throwing his hat into the ring for the Red Sox job.

He takes over from Francona, who led the Red Sox to the World Series title in 2004 – ending a championship drought dating back to 1918 – and again in 2007.

Leading the American League East by nine games at the start of the month, the Red Sox lost 20 of their last 27 games to miss out on the playoffs, earning the dubious distinction of the most awful final-month crash, a misery compounded by their status as pre-season favorites after a massive spending spree and a $161 million payroll.

The Boston Red Sox offered salary
arbitration to designated hitter David Ortiz and right-handed
relief pitcher Dan Wheeler, General Manager Ben Cherington said
in a statement released by the team.

Free agents Ortiz, 36, and Wheeler, 33, have until Dec. 7
to accept or decline the offers. Since the team offered salary
arbitration, the Red Sox are eligible to receive two draft picks
for Ortiz — who is designated as a Type A free agent — if he
goes to another team.

Ortiz hit .309 with 29 home runs and 96 runs batted in
during 146 games with Boston last season. He finished fourth in
the American League in slugging percentage at .554 and on-base
percentage at .398. Ortiz earned $12.5 million this past season,
ESPN reported.

Wheeler was 2-2 with a 4.38 earned run average in 47 relief
appearances in his first season with the Major League Baseball
team.

The club decided against offering salary arbitration to
left-handed pitchers Erik Bedard and Trever Miller, right-handed
pitcher Tim Wakefield, outfielders J.D. Drew and Conor Jackson
and catcher Jason Varitek.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Nancy Kercheval in Washington at
nkercheval@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Michael Sillup at
msillup@bloomberg.net

Qualifier: players will be classified under one position even if they played at more than one.

Jimmie Foxx:

Hall of Fame legend Jimmie Foxx remains one of the greatest hitters in baseball history. From 1936 to 1942, Foxx anchored the Boston Red Sox lineup with some of the best power numbers ever tallied. He maintained a .320 batting average, .429 on-base percentage and .605 slugging percentage over 887 games in Boston for a 1.034 OPS that ranks second only to Ted Williams in franchise history. He won the 1938 American League MVP, the third of his career, while also winning his second batting title. Foxx totaled 222 home runs with the Red Sox and 534 overall in his 20-year Major League career. Just four players own higher career slugging numbers and only seven have driven in more runs.

Kevin Youkilis(notes):

A three-time All-Star corner infielder for the Red Sox since 2004, Kevin Youkilis stands out as one of the great on-base hitters of today’s generation. Through 911 games with the Red Sox, Youkilis boasts a .289 average, .391 OBP and .492 slugging percentage. He has been an above average defender at both first and third throughout his career; he owns one Gold Glove and briefly held the Major League record for consecutive games without an error by a first baseman. Youkilis has posted a WAR (wins above replacement) north of 4.0 in each of the last five seasons, maxing out at 6.0 in 2008 to rank second in the AL.

Mo Vaughn:

Former AL MVP Mo Vaughn was the Red Sox’s star slugger of the 1990s. In an outstanding six-year stretch from 1993 to 1998, Vaughn batted .315 with a .405 OBP, 148 OPS+ (league average is 100) and averages of 36 home runs and 110 RBI per season. He won the 1995 AL MVP and finished in the top five in voting in two other years. Vaughn ranks seventh in Red Sox history with 230 home runs and his career .936 OPS is good for fifth.

George Scott:

Top defensive first baseman George “Boomer” Scott was a fan favorite in Boston for nine of his 14 Major League seasons from 1966 to 1979. Scott went to three All-Star Games, won eight Gold Gloves and maintained a lifetime OPS+ of 114. He enjoyed his breakout year and finished in the top ten in MVP voting with the “Impossible Dream” Red Sox of 1967 when he batted .303 with a .373 OBP and 138 OPS+. Scott hit 154 home runs with the Red Sox and 271 overall in his career.

Jake Stahl:

Jake Stahl served as player/manager for Boston’s first 100-win team and second World Series Champion in 1912. Stahl was consistently one of the best all-around hitters of his generation. Over six nonconsecutive years in Boston from 1903 to 1913, he maintained a .277 average, .350 OBP and 134 OPS+. He batted a career-high .301 in the 1912 title campaign while leading the team to a .691 winning percentage.

Honorable mentions: Dick Hoblitzell, Candy LaChance, Adrian Gonzalez(notes), Dale Alexander, Stuffy McInnis, Wally Dropo, and Kevin Millar(notes).

Sources:

Boston Red Sox Team History & Encyclopedia, Baseball-Reference.com

More from this contributor:

Boston Red Sox top five catchers

Detroit Tigers top five catchers

Cincinnati Reds top five catchers

Chicago Cubs top five catchers

Baltimore Orioles top five first basemen

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Boston Red Sox General Manager Ben Cherington will interview three prospects for manager in the
next week to replace Terry Francona, who left after the team
collapsed in September.

Cleveland Indians bench coach Sandy Alomar Jr. is due at
Fenway Park today; Toronto Blue Jays first-base coach Torey
Lovullo will arrive Nov. 11 and Detroit Tigers third-base coach
Gene Lamont will interview the following day, Boston said on its
website.

The Red Sox, who failed to make the playoffs after losing a
nine-game lead for a postseason spot in the final month of the
season, have interviewed Philadelphia Phillies bench coach Peter
Mackanin and Milwaukee Brewers hitting coach Dale Sveum.

Cherington has said he wants the Major League Baseball team
to have a new manager by the third week of November.

Francona, meanwhile, interviewed yesterday for the
manager’s job with the World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Nancy Kercheval in Washington at
nkercheval@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Michael Sillup at
msillup@bloomberg.net