Navigators scramble after coach resigns

LYNN – There are plenty of interesting happenings going on around the North Shore Navigators during this off season. The biggest of which came just before Thanksgiving when the team’s manager, Jon Cahill, announced that he was stepping aside because of personal reasons.Cahill completed his second season as the team’s manager this season and had been the club’s Director of Player Personnel before that. His exit left Navigators GM Bill Terlecky suddenly on the hunt for a new manager.”We thought that we were good to go with Jon but it’s a real commitment to manage one of these teams,” Terlecky said.”You have to be there pretty much every day for ten weeks in the prime time of summer,” Terlecky said.Navigators fans needn’t worry though as Terlecky said that the club has a pair of highly recommended candidates on its radar to take over in Jared Edmonson and Mick Curran.Edmondson, who Terlecky said he knows from back in his high school days when he was the GM of the Mets Double-A team in Binghamton, NY, played independent ball for nearly a decade after his college career at St. Anselm’s and Umass-Lowell.”It’s kind of funny how the baseball circles work with my knowing Jared from when he was in high school,” Terlecky said.”He comes highly recommended from our league commissioner (Chris Hall).”Curran is someone that Terlecky also knows well from his time as GM of the Gary South Shore RailCats in Indiana. Both the RailCats and Navigators are owned by Pat Salvi.”We have two candidates that we’d be thrilled to have as our manager,” Terlecky said. “They are two highly qualified people.”One thing the Navigators do have pretty much set is their roster for the upcoming season. Before he stepped down, Cahill had already put together most of the team that will be playing in Lynn next season.”Jon did leave us with the cupboard pretty full,” Terlecky said.”We just need to clean things up a bit and get a couple of other guys. But we are in pretty good shape player wise.”One thing that the Navigators have focused on in the last couple of season is bringing home grown talent from the Lynn area on to the team. Last year, they had the former Lynn Classical battery of Kyle Gauthier and Kyle Devin along with St. John’s Prep grad and current Bryant University pitcher Brandon Bingel of Peabody on the roster along with Swampscott’s Trevor Massey from Boston College.Bringing in that local talent is something that Terlecky wants to only grow upon going forward.”We want to focus on having more locals, to be honest,” Terlecky said.”We had a couple get away and that’s something we don’t want to happen. We need to make sure that’s a priority to have local kids that can compete at this level.”Last season, the Navigators came out of the gates slowly but closed the season red hot and just missed out on a playoff spot.Despite the team’s finishing with a 26-29 record, large crowds still came out to Fraser on a regular basis, something that Terlecky has been proud to see.”We’ve tried to continue to give everyone a good time every night and last summer, the word of mouth seemed to get around and it was well received,” Terlecky said.