Yesterday the Mariners met with the Mets’s VP of Player Relations, Tony Bernazard. Bernazard took a big hit from the media amidst the Willie firing. Of course, as the firing began to look like a good move, his potential involvement in the end of the Willie Randolph era became much less newsworthy.

In a report for Newsday just after the Randolph firing, Ken Davidoff wrote:

“Take this for what it’s worth, but Wednesday, I received two phone calls from industry contacts – the first, a longtime friend of many Hispanic players, and the second, a scout from an American League team. Both, unsolicited, brought up Bernazard, both professed to not know him and both offered the same sentiment: ‘I hear he’s a really bad guy.’”…Early Tuesday morning, when the hatchet fell on Randolph and the two coaches, Bernazard could be seen in the team hotel, giddy as a schoolgirl with a new dress.”

There were many stories like this. He spent too much time in the clubhouse. He gave the players confidential evaluations of Randolph. Maybe this was all true or maybe he was just a former employee of the Player’s Association and the Director of Player Relations doing his job so I have had trouble buying that he stepped over the line. Nonetheless, I never trusted him. But whatever he was doing it apparently worked. He knows his future as a GM is not with the Mets and teams are interested in the controversial VP of Player Relations.

Others competing for the Mariners job:

Kim Ng, Assistant GM for the Dodgers: You may remember her from the 2003 Winter Meetings when Bill Singer, then a special assistant to Mets GM Jim Duquette, asked her why she was there, about her heritage, and eventually mocked her in fake Chinese. If you’ll believe it Bill Singer, who was fired by the Mets shortly after the incident, as of this summer was working for the Nationals as the Coordinator of Pacific Rim Operations. You just can’t make that stuff up.

Tony Lavaca, Assistant GM for the Blue Jays

Jerry DiPoto, Director of Player Personnel for the Diamondbacks: You may remember Jerry from his 2 year stint with the Mets as a relief pitcher in 1995 and 1996. He pitched 115 games for the Mets with an ERA of 3.98.

Peter Woodford, Assistant GM for the Diamondbacks

So the Seattle Mariners search for a GM has a little Mets flare to it. It would be really nice to have the first woman become a GM but it would be nice to not have to deal with the drama of Tony Bernazard. Even if he wasn’t the meddler he was made out to be, he was at times a distraction. All five candidates have paid their dues so it should be interesting to see how Bernazard stacks up next to the rest of the field.