Posted by Sabrina B. @gametimegirl

Dale Sveum has accepted an offer to be the next manager of the Chicago Cubs.

Sveum will be officially introduced on Friday morning, the team said. He succeeds Mike Quade, who was fired after the Cubs finished 71-91 in 2011, his only full season at the helm.

Sveum, who was previously the Milwaukee Brewers’ hitting coach, is receiving a three-year contract, a baseball source said.

Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein and general manager Jed Hoyer were seen walking into Sveum’s hotel on Thursday afternoon. They emerged an hour later, walking with Sveum out of the hotel and into a waiting car.

Sveum was considered the leading candidate for the Boston Red Sox’ managerial vacancy, with the team flying him to Milwaukee for a second interview.

Meanwhile, Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington was headed out of the country, telling reporters before he left the general managers’ meetings Thursday that the team’s manager search would “take a little breather this weekend.”

Asked Thursday morning whether the Red Sox were out of the hunt for Sveum, Cherington replied via text: “If he accepts the job with the Cubs we would be.”

As of Wednesday night, the Red Sox had yet to make Sveum an offer, with Cherington talking about the possibility of expanding the search. Besides Sveum, the Red Sox have interviewed Pete Mackanin, Torey Lovullo, Gene Lamont and Sandy Alomar Jr. But the team confirmed Wednesday that Mackanin was no longer under consideration.

“We’re not dissatisfied with the candidates we have,” Cherington said Wednesday. “We feel like these are unique circumstances here. … We’re very happy with the candidates. Our next manager could very well come from among those candidates, but we’re not ruling out adding candidates.”

WRITTEN BY Gordon Edes is a baseball writer for ESPNBoston.com & FULL STORY HERE

Follow Gordon Edes on Twitter: @GordonEdes