Ryne Sandberg Promoted to Third-Base Coach for 2013 Phillies

Hall of Fame player Ryne Sandberg will be the Philadelphia Phillies’ third-base coach next season after managing in the minor leagues for the past six.

Sandberg, a former second baseman who led the Phillies’ Triple-A Lehigh Valley IronPigs this year, also will serve as an infield instructor, the Major League Baseball team said in a news release.

Phillies hitting coach Greg Gross, bench coach Pete Mackanin and first-base coach Sam Perlazzo were let go yesterday.

Third-base coach Juan Samuel will move to first, bullpen coach Mick Billmeyer will instruct the catchers, Steve Henderson will become hitting coach after working in the minors as a hitting coordinator the past two years, and Rod Nichols will coach the bullpen, also a promotion to the majors, the Phillies said.

Sandberg, 53, went 439-409-1 managing in the Phillies’ and Chicago Cubs’ minor-league systems from 2007-2012.

He made his major-league debut with the Phillies in 1981, playing 13 games before being traded to the Cubs with Larry Bowa for Ivan Dejesus. Sandberg went on to become a 10-time All-Star and win the 1984 National League Most Valuable Player Award. He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005.

Considered a possible successor to the Phillies’ 68-year- old manager, Charlie Manuel, Sandberg was passed over by the Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals in recent managerial searches.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mason Levinson in New York at mlevinson@bloomberg.net

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