Casey Candaele returns as Bisons manager

The Toronto Blue Jays today announced that Casey Candaele will serve as Buffalo Bisons manager for the 2023 season. Candaele returns to Buffalo after splitting last year as Bisons manager and as interim bench coach for the Blue Jays after being promoted by Toronto in mid-July.

The remainder of the Bisons 2023 coaching staff will be announced at a later date.

The 2023 season will mark Candaele’s third year as Bisons manager with the former Herd player compiling a 122-89 record (.578 winning pct) in his first season and a half with the club. Candaele began the 2022 season leading the Bisons to a 43-42 record before his promotion to the Blue Jays on July 13. In Toronto, Candaele helped then-interim manager John Schneider lead the Blue Jays to a Wild Card berth.

Candaele was first named manager of the Bisons on March 8, 2021 while also serving as the Blue Jays’ field coordinator. In his first season, Candaele became the first person in the team’s modern era to win a division championship as a player and coach by leading the team to the 2021 Triple-A East Northeast Division crown with a 79-47 record. Candaele was named the league’s co-Manager of the Year for leading the team to its first division championship since 2005.

In 2021 under Candaele’s leadership, the Bisons won 29 games at Trenton Thunder Ballpark while the team re-located to Trenton, NJ at the start of the season. Overall, the team won 43 home game that campaign, the second most of any team in Triple-A East.

Candaele also 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.