SEATTLE -- New York Yankees pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre
will be coming home this offseason, but apparently not to a
hometown job.
Seattle manager Mike Hargrove said Tuesday the Mariners are not
currently considering the resident of suburban Issaquah for their
vacant pitching coach job.
"We haven't talked to Mel and we haven't talked about Mel. He's
still under contract with the Yankees," Hargrove said via
telephone from his offseason home in the Cleveland area.
Stottlemyre said late Monday night, after the Yankees' season
ended with a loss to the Los Angeles Angels in Game 5 of their AL
Division Series, that he did not expect to return to New York for
the 2006 season. Instead, the 63-year-old was looking forward to
returning to his winter home here.
"I'm not sure I'm going to retire," Stottlemyre said Monday,
adding "there are other options."
When told Tuesday of Stottlemyre's comments, Hargrove simply
said, "Oh."
"I'm not trying to be a turkey," Hargrove said. "I have not
talked to anyone about Mel."
Bryan Price left Seattle on Oct. 3 after 18 seasons with the
organization, the last six as the team's pitching coach. The
Mariners, who finished last in the AL West at 69-93 this past
season and had the league's seventh-best ERA at 4.47, have been
compiling a list that Hargrove said has grown to about six
candidates and is still growing.
Mark Wiley, recently fired by the Florida Marlins, was
Hargrove's pitching coach with Cleveland for the Indians' World
Series team in 1995 and '97. He also served as Hargrove's pitching
coach in Baltimore from 2001 through '03. The two remain friends.
But Hargrove would not specify Wiley, or anyone else, is a
candidate to lead Seattle's pitchers.
"There's a lot of people interested," Hargrove said. "It's
kind of gratifying."
Hargrove and Mariners general manager Bill Bavasi are also
seeking a new hitting coach for the departed Don Baylor. Hargrove
said he also has about a half dozen candidates for that job.
Trumping those two openings are the team's needs for a catcher, a
left-handed hitter and a starting pitcher or three.
"We're going to get it done soon," Hargrove said of the two
top positions on his staff. "We obviously have a lot bigger fish
to fry.
"We want to get the right people in here to really take off."