Cleveland Guardians Ask Permission to Interview Craig Counsell

This comes out of left field but makes a lot of sense upon further examination. Terry Francona, long time Guardians manager, has retired and Cleveland is looking for a capable replacement, reports Will Sammon of The Athletic.. Francona has long been regarded as one of the best managers in the game, an attribute now shared by Counsell.

Initially, what surprised me most about this is that the Guardians are notoriously cheap... what I didn't realize is that the one place they haven't been cheap is manager. Counsell is one of the more highly-paid managers in the sport and the departing Francona actually made more money.

It's still unclear whether Counsell is actually interested in leaving Milwaukee - his childhood home town - or if he's trying to leverage other teams into a better paycheck from the Brewers.