Tim Wallach loses out on Mariners manager job

Dodgers third base coach Tim Wallach was a bridesmaid again on Tuesday, as the Mariners passed him up to hire Lloyd McClendon as their new manager in Seattle. It was the second managerial job Wallach has interviewed for this offseason but ultimately fell short, as former Dodgers catcher Brad Ausmus was hired on Sunday by the Tigers.

There is only one managerial vacancy remaining, with the Cubs, and Wallach didn't interview there. All signs point to him returning to the Dodgers in 2014, as his contract option for next year was exercised on Oct. 22.

But Wallach's role may change, as Ken Gurnick of MLB.com reports that Wallach is under consideration for the Dodgers' vacant bench coach position. Trey Hillman, who was manager Don Mattingly's only bench coach to date, was let go on Oct. 22.

Moving Wallach to bench coach would open up a vacancy at third base coach, and Gurnick mentions Lorenzo Bundy as a possible candidate for that position. That would give the Dodgers the last two managers of Triple-A Albuqueque. In fact, counting Bundy's stint as manager of Las Vegas in 2007-2008, before Wallach's two-year term at the helm of the Isotopes, those two have managed the Dodgers Triple-A affiliates for the last seven seasons.

There hasn't been much talk of the Dodgers' pursuit of a bench coach, though Gurnick reports the team is "waiting for the managerial merry-go-round to stop before finalizing the coaching staff."

With the Cubs entering the "final stages" of their managerial search, as reported by Jon Heyman of CBS Sports among others, that merry-go-round will soon come to a stop. And we might have a resolution to the Dodgers' coaching staff rather soon.

Now, about that contract extension for Mattingly ...