The Yankees' wide-ranging managerial search continued on Saturday afternoon when they interviewed Chris Woodward, the third-base coach for the National League-champion Dodgers, for the vacant position.
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman reached out to the Dodgers earlier in the week for permission to interview Woodward, 41, who becomes the fifth candidate to interview for the job.
"Managing this team would be a dream come true," Woodward said during his conference call with the news media following his interview. "I really admire everything that this organization has done. It would be a huge honor."
Woodward's interview comes one day after the club interviewed Aaron Boone. Yankees bench coach Rob Thomson, former Indians and Mariners manager Eric Wedge and Giants bench coach Hensley Meulens have also been brought in for interviews.
New York expects its next manager to be a great communicator to be able to connect with its young core and to be fluent in analytics, something Woodward has been well acquainted with on the Dodgers' coaching staff under manager Dave Roberts
"I think you're a fool if you don't understand the importance of [analytics]," Woodward said. "You can have the smartest people in the world, but if the players don't buy in, it doesn't really factor in."
Woodward played in the Majors for 12 seasons, most of which came with Toronto but also included two seasons in New York playing for the Mets. By the end of his playing career, Woodward said he started taking on a leadership role with some of the team's younger players, which he believes would aid him as a manager.
After his playing career ended, Woodward joined the Mariners' organization as their Minor League infield coordinator in 2012 before becoming the big league infield coach in '14. He has spent the past two seasons in his current position with Los Angeles. Woodward's brief managing experience came when he managed New Zealand in the 2017 World Baseball Classic qualification tournament.
"Leading a team that was not supposed to do anything, to try to pump them up to make them accomplish something that they didn't even know they were capable of kind of fit my mentality and my beliefs," Woodward said. "I guess I'm an overachiever and I believe that people can overachieve."