According to recent reporting, former Boston Red Sox slugger Manny Ramirez is looking for a job as a hitting coach either in the major or minor leagues. With the noise surrounding the Red Sox' reliance, or overreliance, on analytics, it would make sense for Boston to at least hear Ramirez out in an interview, though that still seems unlikely.

After spending eight seasons in Boston and another three in Chicago together, could former Red Sox general manager turned part-owner Theo Epstein help secure Ramirez a job with the organization?

Here’s how Epstein could help or hurt Ramirez’s chances at landing a job: 

Throughout his playing career, Ramirez was known for his antics, both on and off the field. Whenever the newest incident popped up, it was written off as “Manny being Manny.” That reputation as a clubhouse nuisance can work when you’re on your way to 500 career home runs, but not so much when you’re a coach looking to impart wisdom on players. The last thing any team wants is a coach, working with young players, teaching them to behave as Ramirez did during his playing career. 

After eight seasons in Boston and another three as members of the Chicago Cubs organization, where Ramirez served as a hitting instructor while Epstein was the president of baseball operations, there may be no person in baseball who knows what it’s like to work with Ramirez as both a player and coach better than Epstein, both good and bad. 

That said, few people in the sport know Ramirez’s dedication to the craft of hitting better than Epstein. Whether it be setting pitchers up by looking at hittable pitches early in games so he can do damage on the same pitches later in the game, Ramirez knows what it takes to be a Hall of Fame-caliber player, steroids or not, and Epstein had a front-row seat to that preparation. 

Clearly, there wasn’t much concern about Ramirez being a bad influence on young players as Epstein hired his former slugger twice during his tenure as President of Baseball Operations with the Cubs, first as a player-coach with the Triple-A Iowa Cubs, and again as a hitting consultant, where he worked alongside then-top prospects such as Willson Contreras and Javier Baez, both of whom played major roles in Chicago’s 2016 World Series-winning season. 

A future Hall of Famer in his own right, Epstein blended modern analytics with the game's old-school style better than anyone in the sport. Evidently, he saw enough from Ramirez that showed he was able to adapt to the modernization of the game, while still staying true to the old-school style of baseball, to hire him in Chicago. 

The Red Sox are mired in seemingly endless debates about their reliance on analytics, particularly on offense, where they've leaned heavily on increasing bat speed, exit velocity, and air-ball percentage, with mixed success. The team certainly seems to be in desperate need of someone who can blend the two. 

Ultimately, Epstein, an advisor and confidant of Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow, could be the deciding factor in Boston taking a chance on their former star.