Multiple reports late Wednesday night, including this one from Carrie Muskat at cubs.com, indicated that Milwaukee Brewers coach Dale Sveum would be offered the Cubs' manager position. No indication was given on when this might happen, nor would anyone from Cubs upper management confirm this report, which came out after Rangers pitching coach Mike Maddux withdrew his name. Maddux reportedly cited "family reasons" for not wanting to leave Texas.
Sveum had a 12-year playing career that peaked with 25 HR and 95 RBI in the freakish 1987 season when players who never hit home runs did so (Wade Boggs hit 24 HR that year; his career high otherwise was 11). Sveum, a first-round pick of the Brewers in 1982, came up as a shortstop, but after a serious injury in 1988 which caused him to miss the entire 1989 season, became a utility player, retiring after 1999.
He was the 3B coach for the Red Sox in 2004 and 2005, and has been a Brewers coach since 2006, taking over the Brewers as manager for the final 12 games of the 2008 season, when Ned Yost lost control of a team that was cruising to the wild card and had them in a 3-11 tailspin. Sveum righted the Milwaukee ship just enough (going 7-5) to get into the playoffs, where they were eliminated in the first round by the Phillies. He was passed over for the fulltime managing job when Milwaukee hired Ken Macha, and again in 2011 when they hired Ron Roenicke.
Again, there has been no comment from Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein or GM Jed Hoyer on these reports; we await further developments.