Chris Antonetti is the VP of Baseball Operations for the Cleveland Indians and many would have loved for him to become Seattle’s next GM. 

Being the second in charge of a very well run organization underneath a great GM would be reason enough for him to be considered, but he has successful experience in many different sides of running a baseball team to help back him up.  For more information on Antonetti I direct you to USS Mariner, possibly Antonetti’s biggest supporters.

Antonetti would be right near the top of my list as well, but it appears he has been eliminated from contention.  Larry LaRue is reporting today that Seattle’s list of potential GMs was once approaching 60 names, but is now nearing single digits, and gave us this tidbit:

Among those the Mariners wanted to talk to – but won’t be able to – are two men with San Diego and another with Cleveland.

The two men from San Diego are current GM Kevin Towers and assistant Paul DePodesta (of Moneyball fame).  Both were eliminated recently as the Padres CEO let it be known that neither were available.  I would assume the man from Cleveland is Antonetti. 

Cleveland Director of Baseball Operations Mike Chernoff could potentially be in the mix– after all he was ranked #6 on Baseball Prospectus’ “The Next Ten Top GM Candidates“– but the chances of him turning down an interview are much less likely than Antonetti, who has turned down GM interviews in the past.  Antonetti is a lock to succeed Mark Shapiro as GM when Shapiro gets promoted to team President, so why would he want to leave such a great organization? 

Chernoff, on the other hand, must know that it’ll be a long time before he has a shot at becoming the Indians GM, as he’s seated behind one fantastic GM and another one that is expected to be great.  He’s far enough away from the job that it’s unlikely he has anything written into his contract to keep him from interviewing with other teams, and I can’t imagine him turning down an interview at this point.  That said, Chernoff probably isn’t ready for regular GM duty anyway.  (Hat tip to Rob T. for bringing Chernoff to my attention.)

Antonetti wasn’t expected to make much noise in this GM search, but it’s still too bad to see him out of it, assuming the information is indeed accurate and interpreted correctly.  It appears that the Blue Jays’ Tony LaCava, Dodgers’ Kim Ng and White Sox’ Rick Hahn are the top candidates still available.

Rob and I should have posts on LaCava and Ng out sometime this weekend, and one of us will be sure to cover Hahn soon as well.  All three seem like dynamite candidates at this point.

Update, 10/4 2:44 AM: Definitely Antonetti, according to Larry Stone:

According to sources in the Cleveland organization, the Indians’ highly regarded assistant GM, Chris Antonetti, plans to remain with the Indians.

Antonetti in the middle, with manager Eric Wedge and GM Shapiro.  Photo Source