Coaching Staff Coming Into Place?

Becoming a new manager has its responsibilities. One of them is building a coaching staff. And with the departure of Joe Torre as manager at the end of this past season, several of his coaches left with him, leaving new manager Don Mattingly with the task of rebuilding the staff.

In recent weeks, we learned that Larry Bowa (third base coach), Mariano Duncan (first base coach) and Bob Schafer (bench coach) would not return to the Dodgers next season. And with Mattingly vacating his role as hitting coach once he was named the manager, that left at least four open spots on the staff. Only Rick Honeycutt and Ken Howell were said to either be definitely coming back, or at least considering it. Howell eventually agreed to return as the team's bullpen coach.

Over the weekend we learned that former Royals manager Trey Hillman was a leading candidate to become the bench coach, and today it was announced that Honeycutt accepted the invitation to return as the team's pitching coach. We also learned today that Tim Wallach, who was the Triple-A manager for the Dodgers in Albuquerque this past season and was a candidate to replace Torre as well as a handful of the other managerial openings around the league and interviewed for the job in Milwaukee, is not a finalist for the Brewers job. Wallach had already been told he would be part of next year's staff if he wasn't hired by any of the other teams looking for a new manager. Because the Dodgers didn't want the process of naming their new staff to linger, and with the unexpected large number of managerial openings around the league, the Dodgers asked Wallach to limit his options and to make himself available to only half of those teams. Thus, last week he did not interview for the job in Toronto, but did for Milwaukee. Word is now he will be the team's third base coach next season.

All that's left to be determined is the team's hitting coach and first base coach. Mike Pentland and Chili Davis are the leading candidates for the hitting coach, though my guess is Pentland is the favorite based on his experience at the Major League level in that capacity in recent years. Davis has been all but out baseball since he retired after the 1999 season. There's still no word or idea on who the first base coach might be.

Also, assistant GM Logan White is no longer a candidate to become the Mets new GM, and for now, he remains with the Dodgers in his current role. Whew, great news!