Milwaukee Brewers identifying candidates in search for new general manager

The Milwaukee Brewers have asked for permission to interview a pair of candidates for their vacant general manager position, and have received permission to interview at least one of them, according to reports from FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal:

Sources: #Brewers receive permission to interview #Athletics asst GM Dan Kantrovitz for their GM opening, sources tell me and @jonmorosi.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) September 9, 2015

Sources: #Brewers expected to ask permission to interview #Rays VP of baseball operations Chaim Bloom for GM vacancy.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) September 9, 2015

Kantrovicz is in his first season as assistant general manager under Billy Beane, who lost his former deputy, Farhan Zaidi, to the Dodgers in 2014. Kantrovicz had been with the Cardinals from 2011-2014 as scouting director, which was his second stint with St. Louis.

Bloom is also in his first season as an assistant general manager in Tampa, again thanks to the Dodgers poaching one of the Rays' higher ups. Andrew Friedman left Tampa Bay for Los Angeles in October, with assistant Matthew Silverman promoted to replace him and Bloom taking Silverman's role.

With Kantrovicz and Bloom as top general manager candidates, it seems that the Brewers are headed in a direction that will embrace analytics more so than the previous regime had under Doug Melvin, as the two candidates come from two of the most analytically-inclined organizations in baseball. The change from Melvin seems to have been less about him personally, and more about the franchise wanting to go in a different direction.