Could the MLB have a Canadian skipper for the first time in over 80 years?

RUSSELL MARTIN (Candidate #3)                                                                 Current position: MLB player Toronto Blue Jays

This one is pure speculation but based on his presence in the dugout and vast knowledge of the game, Russell Martin would seem like a natural fit to become a skipper when he hangs them up.

The Montreal-native still has two years left on a five-year $82 million deal with the Blue Jays and will be 36 after it’s over.

If a baseball team was to return to Montreal in let’s say the next five years, it’s hard to imagine that Martin would not be near the top of the team’s hiring list.

If you are to believe MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, expanding the League into Montreal is in the works. And as the only Quebecois player in the MLB right now, Martin would seem like a natural fit as the face of an expansion franchise.

But Martin could be more than just a bilingual poster boy, as he has appears to have the skillset to be a successful Big League manager in the future.

It would be a fitting end to Martin’s playing days, returning to the team that originally drafted him in 2000 but as the manager. He never played for the Expos, choosing to go to college instead. And by the time he reached the Majors in 2006, Montreal had relocated to Washington.

The veteran catcher is already a fan favourite among Quebec baseball fans, as he receives a standing ovation every spring when the Blue Jays play at Olympic Stadium, the former home of the Expos.

But again this is speculation, Martin may retire and have no desire to coach baseball.

Managing at the Major League level is still very much an American game. Of the 27 current skippers, only four are born outside of the US, and three of those (Ron Gardenhire, Dave Roberts, and Bruce Bochy) were from American military families and just happened to be born when the family was abroad.

So this leaves the newly anointed Red Sox manager, Alex Cora as the only one born and raised outside of the States.

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If Rob Thomson does not win the Yankees job, then the wait for a Canadian skip will continue. But with  him, Clapp, and Martin kicking around surely the wait won’t be another 83 years.