Looking for Grady Little’s successor might take some time for Boston.

BOSTON (AP) – The 44th manager of the Boston Red Sox must embrace his players as well as the statistics the front office feeds him.

The search for that man could take a while.

Plenty of names have surfaced as a potential successor to Grady Little, and team officials plan a detailed analysis of candidates’ clubhouse presence and on-field tactics.

“Our next manager will hopefully embody the same characteristics Grady had in the clubhouse,” general manager Theo Epstein said. “It’s a subtle distinction in terms of areas of emphasis.”

The list of potential candidates is long: Terry Francona, Glenn Hoffman, Bud Black, Joel Skinner, Willie Randolph, Bobby Valentine and many others.

And the search could go beyond “the obvious candidates,” Red Sox president Larry Lucchino said.

The team announced Monday that it would not exercise its option to bring Little back for a third season after he led the Red Sox to records of 93-69 and 95-67. This year, they reached the playoffs for the first time since 1999.

His players strongly supported him, and Epstein praised his skills in keeping them happy, fostering togetherness and handling problems. But management had concerns that he was not properly using data on pitcher-hitter matchups and other subjects.

John Henry, the Red Sox principal owner, made a fortune using a formula to forecast movement in the commodities market, and was concerned that Little made some decisions based on his feel for a game situation rather than the numbers.

The most damaging one was his decision to stick with Pedro Martinez in the eighth inning of the seventh game of the AL championship series with the New York Yankees.

Although opponents had a much higher batting average against Martinez when his pitch count rose above 100 in a game, Little left his ace in. The Yankees tied the game with three runs in the inning and won it 6-5 in the 11th.

Epstein and Lucchino emphasized that the decision to let Little go was based on far more than that.

But Martinez took the blame.

“I was the one responsible for staying in the box in the game against the Yankees – not Grady,” Martinez was quoted as saying in Tuesday’s edition of the Dominican newspaper Hoy. “Grady shouldn’t be blamed for anything. He did a great job for Boston in the last two seasons.”

Now it will be someone else’s job in a city with passionate fans of a team that last won the World Series in 1918.

Francona was the bench coach with Texas in 2002 and Oakland in 2003. From 1997 through 2000, he led Philadelphia to four losing seasons in his first stint as a major-league manager.

He interviewed Tuesday for the Baltimore managerial vacancy, an indication that Oakland would grant Boston permission to talk with him, if requested. In March 2002, the Athletics denied the Red Sox permission to interview bench coach Ken Macha for the vacancy Little filled.

Cleveland hitting coach and former Baltimore first baseman Eddie Murray is considered the favorite for the Orioles’ job.

Francona, who also interviewed for the Chicago White Sox opening, and Hoffman, Los Angeles’ third-base coach and a former Boston infielder, are considered good at handling players and game strategy.

Black, Anaheim’s pitching coach, and Randolph, the Yankees’ third-base coach, haven’t managed in the majors. Skinner, Cleveland’s third-base coach, was the Indians’ interim manager in 2002.

Valentine, the former manager of the New York Mets, is a strong tactician but has had problems dealing with the players and media.

“We have a lot of respect for various managers we’ve gotten to know along the way, and Bobby Valentine is one we would include on that list,” Lucchino said.

How about Yankees manager Joe Torre? Would Boston be interested if he’s let go after New York’s championship drought reached three seasons, or in his possible successor, Randolph?

“I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to comment on someone who’s under contract to another team,” Lucchino said.

If Torre stays in New York, Little could be a candidate to replace Don Zimmer, who has said he will leave as bench coach

“Wouldn’t that be something,” Lucchino said with a laugh.

AP-ES-10-28-03 1837EST