Mike Cubbage will be the manager of the Red Sox in Bradenton, Fla., on Wednesday afternoon. But 50 years from now, when you look back on a list of all-time Red Sox managers, you'll never find his name.

That's because you have to manage a regular-season game to make the baseball encyclopedias. And Cubbage will not be managing the Red Sox when the Blue Jays show up at Fenway on April 1.

Cubbage replaced Joe Kerrigan as the interim manager for two reasons, according to two baseball officials with knowledge of the Red Sox situation: 1) He wasn't a member of last year's coaching staff, and 2) He gives team president Larry Lucchino and interim general manager Mike Port time to sort out their next move.

There has been speculation about any number of big-name candidates -- Buck Showalter, Jim Leyland, Tom Kelly and Felipe Alou, primarily. But they all appear unlikely.

In fact, according to one friend of Lucchino, it wouldn't be surprising if the next manager had no major-league managing experience. That would point toward the hiring of someone like current Cleveland Indians bench coach Grady Little. The Indians gave the Red Sox permission to talk to Little on Wednesday.

Little is a former Red Sox coach. He and Lucchino both worked in San Diego in the mid-'90s. And Little has vast minor-league managing experience, plus several extended periods filling in for ailing Cleveland manager Charlie Manuel last year. He would seem to be a perfect fit.

If Lucchino and Port look to someone with big-league managing experience, Jim Fregosi might be a possibility. He was interviewed for the Red Sox job several years ago before Jimy Williams was hired.

In his last job, Fregosi had two straight winning seasons managing in the AL East, in Toronto. And for what it's worth, he's the only potential candidate with actual experience replacing a big-league manager who got fired in spring training. He took over the Blue Jays in March, 1999, after Tim Johnson was fired with two and a half weeks left in spring training.

The third name prominently speculated about is current Oakland coach Ken Macha, who managed several years in the Red Sox farm system. His candidacy apparently has been endorsed by several of the players he managed -- most prominently Nomar Garciaparra, Trot Nixon and Jason Varitek.

Jayson Stark is a senior writer for ESPN.com.