Athletics Nation reviews the candidates to manage Oakland in 2022. Mark Kotsay appears to be the front runner.

How about Kotsay then? He’s both the safe predictable pick and perhaps the most exciting option, and you don’t often get that combo. Here’s a snippet from Alex Coffey of The Athletic two years ago:

Former San Diego Padres teammate Will Venable said that during their playing careers, Kotsay had “the emotional intelligence to understand what a guy was going through, and was able to follow up with an experience that showed he’s struggled the same way.” Pinder says that when Kotsay was working as the A’s bench coach, he’d approach him during games — both during times of exhilaration and times of frustration — and know exactly what to say and when to say it.

AthleticsNation.com

Kotsay played 17 years in the majors. In his prime he owned a great OBP, but that tailed off to a good .332 for his career. For an outfielder/first baseman, he showed little power. I suspect clubs liked that he had a positive impact on other players, so he stuck around.