Manager
Casey Candaele
Candaele is in his second season as Bisons manager, having led the Bisons to a 79-47 record and an Northeast Division title in 2021 in his first season on the bench. With the successful campaign, Candaele became the first person in the modern era to win a division crown as a player and a manager. Candaele was a pivotal member of the 1997 American Association Championship team.
Candaele is the club's 22nd Modern Era Manager. In 2021, he helped guide the Bisons to 29 victories during their re-location to Trenton Thunder Ballpark and finished with 43 overall home wins last season, the second-most in Triple-A East. Buffalo won the Northeast Division by four and a half games with a 79-47 record and completed the ‘Final Stretch’ postseason tournament with an 8-1 record, finishing second to Durham in both the regular season and postseason.
This is Candaele's fourth season as a manager in the Toronto Blue Jays system (fifth overall), having served as skipper of the Single-A Dunedin Blue Jays of the Florida State League in 2018 (69-68) and the short-season Vancouver Canadians of the Northwest League in 2019 (30-46). In 2020, he oversaw all Blue Jays minor leaguers that were not assigned to the club’s alternate training site in Rochester.
Prior to joining the Blue Jays, Candaele was the Seattle Mariners first base coach and outfield/baserunning instructor in 2016 and 2017 and spent five years in the Texas Rangers organization as the minor league field coordinator (2015) and a minor league infield and baserunning coordinator (2011-2014). From 2000-2010, Candaele held various coaching positions at San Luis Obispo (CA) High School and in summer collegiate baseball leagues.
Candaele spent three seasons of his 18-year professional playing career with the Bisons (1995-1997), appearing in 270 games and averaging .265 with 79 extra base hits (17 home runs), 113 RBI and 155 runs scored. He was an American Association All-Star in 1996 in a year he hit .311 with 66 runs scored in 94 games. A favorite among Buffalo fans and his teammates, Candaele was voted by his fellow Bisons as the club’s 1997 Most Inspirational Player. That season, when a torn knee ligament in Game Three of the AA semifinals caused Candaele to miss the remainder of the playoffs, many of his Bisons teammates had “CC 10” written in their caps as they captured the team’s first Triple-A Championship since 1961.
Originally signed by Montreal in 1982, Candaele played 754 Major League games with the Expos, Astros and Indians with a .250 average, 11 home runs and 139 RBI. He appeared in two games for Cleveland during the 1996 American League Divisional Series and played every position in his Big League career other than pitcher and catcher.
Born in Lompoc, CA, Candaele attended the University of Arizona and helped the Wildcats to a 1980 NCAA Championship. His mother, Helen Callaghan, was a member of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League and was often referred to as “The Ted Williams of women’s baseball” (Candaele’s aunt, Margaret, also played in the league). It is believed that Helen and Casey are the only mother-son combination to have both played professional baseball.
