MyNorthwest.com staff

Joey Cora was one of the finalists for the Mariners managerial opening in 2008 before the team hired Don Wakamatsu. Now, as the team enters another search for a new manager, the former Mariners second baseman is again rumored to be in the mix.

ESPN baseball writer Jerry Crasnick, who tweeted Tuesday that "according to the scouting grapevine... Cora has emerged as a strong candidate for the Seattle managing job," had this to say about Cora on the Kevin Calabro show:

"All I can tell you is that his name really is out there... and he looks like he's a pretty serious candidate for the Mariners job. Is he going to be the guy? I'd be lying if I told you that or if he's definitively the manager or anything. I wouldn't go to that point. But I have it on pretty good authority that I trust that (Cora) is a guy who is pretty seriously in the mix for that job."

The rumored interest in Cora doesn't exactly jive with some recent comments from Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik about his criteria for a new skipper.

"I think the one thing we are going to look for is, initially, someone with experience," Zduriencik said Friday on the Kevin Calabro show. "I'm not going to say that's going to be the only criteria, because it will not be. But I think it would be important to have someone that has a good track record, someone that has managerial experience."

Cora has been a member of the Chicago White Sox coaching staff since 2004 and has been the team's bench coach the last four years, but has never managed in the majors.

"I don't think there is any question that Joey is going to be a manager at some point," ESPN baseball writer Buster Olney said Tuesday on the Brock and Salk show. "He's always been regarded as a smart guy. ...He's a great baseball guy. He and Alex, his brother, are regarded as two of the great minds of people who have been in the game in the last 20 years."

So why hasn't Cora landed a managing job yet?

"I've had players in there last two, three, four years saying (to me), 'Hey, if you get a chance why don't you throw my name out there as a potential guy who might want to be a manager,'" Olney said. "That's not something I see Joey Cora doing. Maybe that's part of the reason why he really hasn't been in the mix to this point."

You might also be interested in:

• Audio: Jerry Crasnick
• Audio: Buster Olney
• Drayer: What Zduriencik wants in a manager