Piniella won't contribute to Rays rumors

© St. Petersburg Times
published October 2, 2002

NEW YORK -- Lou Piniella may be the person folks around town (and Tropicana Field) are talking the most about in connection with the Rays' managerial opening, but Piniella isn't saying much about the possibility.

Piniella flew home to Tampa from Seattle on Tuesday claiming to be unaware of the heavy speculation suggesting he would leave the Mariners to take over the hometown Rays.

"I'm just getting home after a long season and resting," Piniella said Tuesday night from his Tampa home. "I'm under contract in Seattle. That's about all I can say."

Two other potential candidates, Bucky Dent and Willie Randolph, said Tuesday they definitely would be interested.

For the Rays to have a chance at landing Piniella, he would have to get out of the remaining year of his $2.5-million contract with Seattle. That isn't going to be easy, given the way he helped turn the Mariners from an 98-loss team to an annual contender, but it is not thought to be impossible because the Mariners may be going through a front-office transition.

But even if Piniella, 59, does work out a deal to leave Seattle, there is no guarantee he would come home to manage the Rays even though he has extended family and friends in the area.

There already was talk in New York on Tuesday night about Piniella, who was a star player and manager for the Yankees, taking over the crosstown Mets, who fired Bobby Valentine earlier in the day. Piniella also is being mentioned in Texas media reports raising the question of reuniting him with star shortstop Alex Rodriguez.

Dent, who managed the Yankees in 1989-90, said he was "definitely" interested in the Rays job.

"I think that would be a great challenge," Dent said from his Boynton Beach home. "They've got some good young players and it would be nice to grow with them."

After leaving the Yankees, Dent spent the next 11 seasons as a coach with St. Louis and Texas. He spent this past season managing Kansas City's Triple-A team and was passed over when the Royals fired Tony Muser and hired Tony Pena.

"I wanted to get back to managing and I felt like a year at Triple A would be a good idea," Dent said. "I didn't want people to say it had been too long since he last managed."

Randolph, the Yankees' third-base coach, said would be interested in managing the Rays as well as any of the other teams that have openings.

"I'm interested in any job. I've been trying to do this for the last seven-eight years," said Randolph, who will meet today with Detroit general manager Dave Dombrowski. "But there's nothing to say until something happens."

Two other Yankees coaches, Don Zimmer and Lee Mazzilli, also could be candidates. Both are believed to be interested but declined to talk about the opening.

"I think just about everybody on my coaching staff would make a good manager," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "I certainly hope that some of my coaches do get that opportunity when the time comes."

Rays general manager Chuck LaMar is compiling a list of candidates and hopes to begin interviews within a couple weeks and make a hire by the end of the month.

-- Staff writer Kevin Kelly contributed to this report.