Last Sunday, the Chicago Cubs announced Joe Maddon would not be returning as the club's manager. Rather, Maddon would be permitted to test free agency while the Cubs sought out a new skipper. Now, after nearly a week of speculation about whom the Cubs would entertain as candidates, we have some idea -- more than that, we know who has already interviewed.

According to Sahadev Sharma of the Athletic, incumbent bench coach Mark Loretta did had an interview on Thursday. Next week, Cubs brass will chat up first-base coach Will Venable, ESPN analyst David Ross, and former New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi, among others presumably:

These are the four names who have been associated most often with the opening. Ross is thought to be the favorite, while Girardi offers the most experience and both Loretta and Venable are internal candidates who evidently offer enough distance from Maddon to feel fine about potentially installing as the new captain.

As we noted above, it stands to reason the Cubs will talk to others before the process is over -- heck, it's possible they already have and those names haven't leaked yet. We'll have to see if that changes over the coming days.