BOSTON -- Amidst the little that Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski explained Wednesday, he did indicate a clear preference for experience in his next manager replacing John Farrell. 
 
Here’s what we know about the outset of Dombrowski’s managerial search. He didn't name any potential interviewees, but it's expected that both Astros bench coach Alex Cora and Diamondbacks bench coach Ron Gardenhire are brought in for interviews.

RED SOX FIRE JOHN FARRELL

• A look at potential candidates
• Farrell thanks management, players, fans
• Fred Toucher: Red Sox shouldn't hire Ausmus or Varitek

 
-- If you haven’t been a major-league manager or coach, you’re probably not gonna make the cut. “I think managerial [experience] helps,” Dombrowski said. “I don't think it's of 100 percent necessity. But I think being in a dugout during a game, seeing what the manager encounters is probably helpful, yeah, I do think it is. I do think it would be difficult for a person more so here than in some other places to walk directly onto the field without some on-field managerial experience at some level or big-league coaching.”
 
-- Dombo has been keeping a list of candidates. “The way I would look at it is you would ideally like to name somebody as quickly as possible but not speed up the process so you don't make a wise decision,” Dombrowski said. “I always keep a list of names for any position that I would be hiring, so I have a list and have added names to that list from some recommendations from our personnel. We'll have to whittle that list of names down and interview some individuals. I don't have a specific timeframe other than ideally it's quicker than sooner or later, but I think you deal with that dependent upon finding the right person.”  (Story continues below.)

 
-- Someone currently on the Red Sox staff, i.e. bench coach Gary DiSarcina, is not likely.  “At  this point, successor from the staff, I don’t really know,” Dombrowski said. “I’m not going to get into specific names that I’m really contemplating at this time, because I really haven’t narrowed  it down. I’d say most likely not, but I’m not going to say for sure not.” 
 
--  Someone elsewhere in the Red Sox system is not likely, either. Meaning, you can probably rule out Jason Varitek. “I don't think anybody else in the system is a candidate, within the system like that,” Dombrowski said. “And I am hesitant, as I think I said already, he should have probably some experience either managing or being on a major-league coaching staff. I'm not going to say that 100 percent, but I think that that’s important in a market like this with the club that we have that’s trying to win a championship, that that would most likely be a necessity.” 
 
-- The new manager looks like he’ll be able to bring in his own coaching staff. Farrell’s coaches are under contract under 2018, but have been told they can look for opportunities elsewhere. “What I told [the coaches] is, first  of all, I think very highly of  them,” Dombrowski said. “They’re good people. They’re good baseball people. I would recommend  to our new  manager any  of them, it’s not  a problem for me, but I do  believe a new manager needs to have his own coaching staff in place, [with our] approval . . . and making sure that there’s proper areas coached within the club . . . [I] would grant permission for any club to talk to our personnel. I know they’re signed, but I wouldn’t want to stand in their way of getting a job somewhere  else if that opportunity came up. Some of them could come back, but again, I’m  going to wait until we get a manager and I won’t  stand in  their way of interviewing elsewhere.” 
 
-- An ability to handle young players well will matter. "It will be very important,” Dombrowski said. “We have a young core of players that are outstanding young talents. I think they have a chance to be championship-type players. They're still in their growth stage. It's a great foundation for a baseball club. We do have some veterans, of course in that mix, too. But I think it's going to be very important for whomever it is to be able to relate to those youngsters, and not only relate to them, but help them get better as players." 
 
-- How well the manager handles the media handles more than it did the last time Dombrowski hired a manager, Brad Ausmus, ahead of the 2014 season. “Communication, leadership, personal skills -- probably here, I think your ability to deal with the media probably weighs more than I would say in Detroit at that particular time,” Dombrowski said. “So I think that some skills in that one to 100 may weigh more in some markets than others. That's probably an important part, maybe more so than it would have been in Detroit and some other markets but I think the overall attributes are very similar.” 
 
-- Dombrowski seems to keeping a broad window open. He also seems adept at saying a lot without saying much of anything.  “You have all different types of attributes that you’re looking for in a manager and with that job, there’s a lot of them. When you’re talking about job knowledge, you’re talking about running the game, running a pitching staff, communication with the players, communication with the front office, dealing with the media, dealing with the training staff. The list just goes on and on,” Dombrowski said. “Any individual that you talk to, you weigh how all those things fit together, and then you end up making decisions who you think will be the best for the job. 
 
“Some people may be more fiery, some people may be more level-headed. Some people maybe be better at handling a pitching staff, some people may be better at running the offensive part of the game. again, define somebody that has all those are very difficult to find, probably most of them are in the Hall of Fame and then you’re in a position where you make the best decision you possibly can."