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

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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.

Boston.com sports writer Nick Cafardo notes that with Bobby Valentine:

“The Sox stuck their necks out a little and thought outside the box. They are taking somewhat of a chance. They recognized that desperate times need desperate measures.

But in Valentine, they know they’re getting passion, one of the best in-game managers, and a guy who will speak his mind. Intellectually, he fits what they like.”

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.

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 have narrowed their managerial search to two candidates — Bobby Valentine and Gene Lamont.

The team is expected to announce Valentine or Lamont as its next manager within the next week, a major league source confirmed to FOXSports.com.

The organization has spent nearly two months looking for the successor to Terry Francona, who won two World Series titles in eight years.

Valentine, currently an ESPN analyst, has managed in the major leagues for 15 seasons, most recently with the New York Mets in 2002. Lamont, the third-base coach with the Detroit Tigers, managed the Chicago White Sox and Pittsburgh Pirates for four seasons each.

The Red Sox attempted to engage the Toronto Blue Jays in discussions about acquiring Toronto manager John Farrell, who has two years left on his contract, but those talks failed to progress.

Baseball saw one managerial “trade” this offseason, with Ozzie Guillen going from the White Sox to the Miami Marlins in exchange for two minor leaguers.

The Red Sox previously interviewed Philadelphia bench coach Pete Mackanin, Cleveland bench coach Sandy Alomar Jr. and Toronto first-base coach Torey Lovullo, but they no longer are under consideration.

Dale Sveum met with Red Sox officials multiple times before accepting an offer to manage the Chicago Cubs.
 

Multiple media sources say Bobby Valentine has emerged as the favorite to succeed Terry Francona as manager of the Boston Red Sox. The former manager of the Texas Rangers and New York Mets is scheduled to meet Monday with general manager Ben Cherington in what some observers believe is only a formality.

Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe wrote:

Now Valentine is the front-runner in that he apparently comes pre-approved by team president Larry Lucchino. Valentine also has the support of principal owner John Henry, according to sources.

According to Jeff Passan of Yahoo!Sports:

If Cherington approves, sources said Sunday, Valentine in all likelihood will be the Red Sox’s next manager.

Wrote Tyler Kepner of the New York Times:

There is an increasing sense around baseball that the job may be his (Valentine’s) to lose. The Red Sox have been canvassing the game for opinions on Valentine.

Passan also alluded to some of the behind-the-scenes Fenway intrigue:

The Red Sox’s seeming schizophrenia – four of the five candidates they have interviewed came without appreciable major league managing experience, and Valentine would arrive with 15 seasons plus another six in Japan – does nothing to dispel the notion of Cherington as a figurehead. This is not fair to him. Longtime colleagues as well as executives from other teams and agents believe him to be eminently capable of running the team. Epstein’s departure only emboldened Lucchino’s grasp on the larger pieces of Boston’s day-to-day operations.

Epstein, of course, is Theo Epstein, who left his post as general manager of the Sox to become president of baseball operations for the Chicago Cubs. One of his first official acts was to hire Dale Sveum as manager. Sveum, by coincidence, is the only managerial candidate who was interviewed twice by the Sox.

Also interviewed by the Sox were Indians bench coach Sandy Alomar Jr., Tigers third base coach Gene Lamont, and Blue Jays first base coach Torey Lovullo.

One person who thinks hiring Valentine would be a bad move for the Red Sox is Bill Price of the New York Daily News:

Plenty has changed – mostly for the worst – in baseball since Bobby V. last managed. The players, especially the star players, have more power than ever before, and a guy like Bobby V., who likes to tweak his players and certainly doesn’t like to pull punches, needs to adapt … You wonder if this could backfire on the Red Sox. Valentine had his moments with the Mets, but imagine how volatile the situation could be in Boston, especially on the heels of this season’s disaster.

Bobby Valentine will meet with the Boston Red Sox Monday to discuss the team’s managerial vacancy, a source close to the former Texas Rangers and New York Mets manager told ESPN on Sunday afternoon.

The 61-year-old Valentine, who is an ESPN analyst, has emerged as a possible front-runner for the Red Sox job after Boston elected not to offer a job to Dale Sveum, who on Friday became manager of the Chicago Cubs. Sveum was the only candidate on general manager Ben Cherington’s publicly announced list of bidders for the job to interview twice, but Cherington has since acknowledged there is at least one other candidate, who has been identified as Valentine, and perhaps more.

Valentine had a conversation with Red Sox CEO Larry Lucchino in 2003, before Terry Francona was hired. During that process, Valentine also had come highly recommended to Red Sox majority owner John W. Henry by longtime Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda.

While in Japan, Valentine also worked with the Red Sox after they established a working agreement with Chiba Lotte in 2007.

The Red Sox had initially hoped to hire a new manager before Thanksgiving, but before leaving for the Dominican Republic, Cherington acknowledged that might not happen. Cherington went to the Dominican to scout Cuban phenom Yeonis Cespedes and make changes in the team’s international department.

The Red Sox’s search for a new manager, begun while Theo Epstein was still general manager, started after Sept. 30, when the team announced that it was not exercising the two-year contract option it held on Francona.

The Miami Marlins, Chicago White Sox, Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals all have made managerial hires since the end of the season. The Red Sox’s position remains the only one unfilled.

Information from ESPNBoston.com’s Gordon Edes contributed to this report.