DeMarlo Hale would have the best product knowledge. The Sox roster has turned over significantly, but Hale still knows a lot of the players and would have instant respect from team leaders Dustin Pedroia and David Ortiz.

Hale became Terry Francona’s bench coach after Brad Mills left to manage Houston and Francona grew to depend on him. Hale wasn’t interviewed last season, the Sox brass reasoning that he was too close to the Francona camp and the whole chicken-and-beer stuff in the clubhouse.

So he stepped back for a year and was the third base coach for the successful Orioles, working under Buck Showalter. He’s a very good teacher of young players and did a great job breaking Manny Machado into the major leagues.

There likely will be others interviewing, but so far this is a solid list. The Sox would do well to interview Mills, San Francisco bench coach Ron Wotus, Tampa Bay bench coach Dave Martinez, and make another attempt at pitching guys such as Mike Maddux and Dave Righetti.

It appears that current Red Sox bench coach Tim Bogar will not be in the mix.

The Red Sox seem to be at a different place than they were at this time last season, when Dale Sveum or Torey Lovullo didn’t make sense for a team that had just collapsed but still had veteran presence. It did make sense to go after someone like Valentine, but that didn’t work out because nobody was ever on the same page and Valentine never had a chance with the numerous injuries and brush fires.

So now the time may be ripe to go with the best managing prospect.