About a week after being told that he would not return to the Reds organization, Jim Riggleman is now being considered for the bench-coach job with the Mets.
Riggleman recently received a call from Omar Minaya, who is a special assistant to new general manager Brodie Van Wagenen. Riggleman is expected to interview for the job sometime next week.
"I would like to go in there and do it," Riggleman said via telephone. "It would keep me working. [The Mets] have a great pitching staff. It would be interesting to watch those guys work. If I could get that job, it would be great. Certainly, no promises."
This past season, Riggelman posted a 64-80 record as the Reds' interim manager after replacing Bryan Price on April 19. Cincinnati had a good start under Riggleman, but it went 19-36 the final two months of the season. It didn't help that the team was hit by the injury bug.
"When Joey Votto got hurt and Scott Schebler went down, we didn't overcome those injuries," Riggleman said. "We were a different ballclub when we weren't putting our full force out there. When we were going good, we were pretty tough to beat because we had a very well-balanced lineup. We had a lot of left-handed hitting in there that could do damage. Then all of a sudden, we became easy to pitch to. It caught up with us."
Riggleman, 65, also has managed the Padres (1992-94), Cubs ('95-99), Mariners (2008) and Nationals ('09-11). After this season, Riggleman was informed that the Reds were going in another direction. The team recently hired David Bell as its skipper.
"The owner, Bob Castellini, I really enjoyed working for him," Riggleman said. "He would come in my office. I knew exactly where I stood. He would come in and tell me what he was happy about and what he was not happy about. He would talk about the players and give me his feelings. … I worked for the Reds for seven years, four of which were in the big leagues. I really enjoyed it."