CLEVELAND — On Oct. 6, 2012, three days after the conclusion of a rotten regular season, Cleveland struck an agreement with Terry Francona to steer the club back to respectability.

That managerial search couldn’t have been simpler, with two true candidates and one easy decision. This search, 11 years later and threatening to seep into November, with 45 or so candidates and enormous shoes to fill, is like locating Waldo at a candy cane factory.

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The club continues to interview its top contenders and march toward the finish line on a replacement for the winningest manager in franchise history. There’s also expected to be turnover at other positions on staff. That will need to be sorted out once the new manager is identified.

With that in mind, here’s a closer look at the known candidates. Two leading options who didn’t make the cut: Sandy Alomar Jr., who chose not to interview, and Will Venable, who spoke with the club — he and GM Mike Chernoff were teammates at Princeton, and Venable still raves about his four-week stint with the organization during spring training in 2016 — but opted to stick with the Texas Rangers in his role as associate manager. Texas stands four wins from its first World Series title and manager Bruce Bochy is 68, so Venable could be the heir apparent.

Craig Counsell

Counsell is the big fish, and while some have suggested the Guardians are a real threat to land him, others find it difficult to envision. His contract as Milwaukee Brewers manager technically expires next week, but the club has granted teams permission to interview him. That includes the Guardians and New York Mets, two franchises that operate in different solar systems. With Counsell the most coveted participant in this game of managerial musical chairs, any team with interest might as well gauge his intentions before assessing other options. From Cleveland’s perspective, not only does Counsell offer more experience than just about any candidate they’ve considered, but he also has experience guiding a team with a low payroll to the playoffs.

If Counsell isn’t inclined to follow his old Milwaukee partner David Stearns to New York, no matter how much money Mets owner Steve Cohen tosses at him, he could simply opt to re-sign with the Brewers. Or, perhaps, he’ll hit it off with Cleveland’s brass, the same group that awarded Francona one of the league’s most lucrative managerial salaries.

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Separate from his managerial prowess, it’d be quite the spectacle to have the guy who scored the greatest gut-punch of an opposing run in the 123-year history of the franchise attempt to end a World Series drought he helped to prolong — especially if he were to retain Alomar as a member of his staff, given Alomar cringes anytime someone mentions the 1997 World Series.

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Stephen Vogt

He’s known for the infectious personality and humorous touch that made Francona such an adept communicator. He can win over any room full of people. Vogt, who hails from the same area — Visalia, Calif. — as Francona’s old sidekick, Brad Mills, morphed from a regular dude who played baseball at a small school and endured early struggles and injuries in the minors into a two-time All-Star, an Oakland fan favorite and a well-respected veteran in the clubhouse.

Vogt, who turns 39 next week, seems to check a lot of boxes, though he does have a shorter track record of coaching experience than any other candidate. He retired after the 2022 season and spent the last year as the Seattle Mariners bullpen and quality control coach. He has held managerial aspirations for a while, though, so when he was sidelined for the 2018 season with the Brewers, he essentially spent the year as a coaching apprentice. Similar to Guardians hitting coach Chris Valaika, another candidate, Vogt has noted the benefits of playing in the majors as the analytics/technology revolution unfolded, which helped him better understand the advantages of using the new resources and wave of information.

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Clayton McCullough

The Los Angeles Dodgers’ first-base coach, McCullough, 43, was drafted by Cleveland in the 22nd round in 2002. He spent four seasons in their minor-league system before shifting to coaching. He started in the Toronto Blue Jays’ lower levels then joined the Dodgers in 2015 as their field coordinator. He became bench coach for Dave Roberts in 2021. (Roberts, of course, debuted with Cleveland in 1999. The club traded him to the Dodgers a couple of years later, and then he played for Francona in Boston.)

McCullough previously interviewed for the Mets job that ultimately went to Buck Showalter. His father, Howard, is a longtime scout for the Kansas City Royals. Freddie Freeman credited McCullough for helping him set career highs in stolen bases the last two years. Mookie Betts has referred to him as the best coach he’s had.

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“It’s just trying not to be too over the top and force a relationship right away,” McCullough said earlier this year about connecting with the Dodgers’ stars. “(You can) tell me I’m trash. I can only try to get better.”

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Andy Green

Green appeared in 140 games with the Arizona Diamondbacks and Mets from 2004-09 before transitioning to a coaching role. He worked his way up through Arizona’s system before landing the Diamondbacks’ third-base coach gig in 2015. After that season, the San Diego Padres tabbed him as manager, replacing Pat Murphy (who has since served as Counsell’s bench coach in Milwaukee). After San Diego dismissed him in 2019, Green joined the Chicago Cubs’ staff as David Ross’ bench coach.

He’s thought to be sharp, prepared and a professor when it comes to teaching infield defense. He helped Chicago’s Nick Madrigal thrive in his first trial at third base last season.

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Carlos Mendoza

The New York Yankees’ bench coach since the 2020 season, Mendoza played in the minors for the San Francisco Giants and Yankees from 1997-2009, but never reached the majors. He spent a few seasons in independent ball, too. The native of Barquisimeto, Venezuela, the hometown of Guardians second baseman Andrés Giménez and longtime Cleveland pitcher Carlos Carrasco among other major leaguers, immediately started coaching in the Yankees’ system once his playing days ended. When the Yankees traveled to Detroit in late August, Mendoza coordinated a pregame meeting in which Miguel Cabrera, who also hails from Venezuela, offered advice and answered questions from the Yankees’ Venezuelan players.

Mendoza joined New York’s major-league staff in 2018 as a quality control coach. Two years later, he replaced former Cleveland catcher Josh Bard as the club’s bench coach. Known to be a calming influence in the clubhouse, Mendoza has interviewed for openings with the Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox in recent years. Perhaps Yankees manager Aaron Boone, who played two seasons in Cleveland and maintains a good relationship with the club’s front office, could provide a ringing endorsement of his right-hand man.

Craig Albernaz

Known for a chatty, upbeat, self-deprecating personality, Albernaz has worked as the Giants’ bullpen coach for the last four seasons, while also aiding the team’s catchers with their work behind the plate. He helped Blake Sabol, for instance, with his defense. Even as the club’s bullpen coach, Albernaz had a seat in the team’s dugout during games. Before his stint in San Francisco, he spent five years coaching in the Tampa Bay Rays’ system. Albernaz does not have a contract for the 2024 season; the Giants hired Bob Melvin as their new manager this week, so their staff is also undergoing changes.

And along those lines, Kai Correa, San Francisco’s bench/infield coach, could receive consideration from teams. He has one year remaining on his contract, but it’s unknown whether he’ll be a part of Melvin’s staff. Correa, 35, has been well-regarded on the coaching circuit for his drills and clinics with infield defense. He worked his way to the Giants’ staff despite never playing professionally. Cleveland hired him as a minor-league infield instructor after he served as an assistant coach at Puget Sound and Northern Colorado. When the Giants dismissed Gabe Kapler before the final weekend of the 2022 season, Correa filled in as interim manager. He interviewed for the job before the team scooped up Melvin from the Padres.

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John McDonald

Drafted by the Indians in 1996, McDonald spent parts of seven big-league seasons (of 16 in all) with the organization. He played for the club from 1999-2004, and then returned for a two-week reunion in June 2013, when he appeared in eight games during Francona’s first year at the helm. He’s worked in the organization since he retired as a player nearly a decade ago, spending most of his time in player development. He was a special assistant in the department and later an infield coordinator, bouncing around to affiliates to connect with coaches and players. He spent a ton of time, for instance, working with former top prospect Nolan Jones on his defense at third base.

Chris Valaika

The Guardians have been high on Valaika’s future since they handed him a three-year contract before the 2022 season. Internally, they have appreciated his desire to tailor instruction to the individual, rather than apply blanket direction to his cast of hitters. He was lauded in his first year for the club’s high-contact approach, which guided the Guardians to the playoffs. The team took a significant step back offensively in 2023, though. How much of that falls on Valaika’s shoulders versus the front office’s jurisdiction is debatable, and it might be immaterial as the team determines which candidates are the best communicators, motivators and thinkers.

Valaika caught the coaching bug toward the end of his decade-long professional career in 2015. He coached at UC Santa Barbara (a team that featured a command artist named Shane Bieber), worked at a facility that specialized in biomechanics and body movement analysis, and then joined the Cubs as a minor-league hitting instructor. He became the Cubs’ assistant hitting coach in 2021 before the Guardians tabbed him to replace Ty Van Burkleo, who had been Francona’s hitting coach for the first nine seasons of his tenure.

When Cleveland hired Valaika two years ago, Luke Carlin, another well-regarded young coach in the system who played with Valaika at Triple-A Iowa in 2015, noted Valaika’s history in both major- and minor-league clubhouses, his ability to build relationships and his curiosity about the technical aspects of the game as qualities that would serve him well.

“Those are the traits,” Carlin said at the time, “where you’re like, ‘OK, this guy might be a really good coach.'”

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(Top photo of Craig Counsell: Mark Goldman / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

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