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Geoff Baker covers the Mariners for The Seattle Times. He provides daily coverage of the team throughout spring training, and during the season.

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October 14, 2008 3:02 PM

What happened to Avila?

Posted by Geoff Baker

With all the talk about the current GM candidates being approached by the Mariners, a few of the obvious ones seem to have vanished into thin air. Remember Al Avila, the assistant GM with the Detroit Tigers and a finalist for the job five years ago? Well, he won't even get a shot at the job this time around.

"We asked permission of (Tigers GM Dave) Dombrowski and were declined,'' said Mariners spokesman Tim Hevly, speaking on behalf of team president Chuck Armstrong.

Well, there you have it. Asked and answered.

That's a lot of declining. But so far, we know of only three of them that did so of their own accord: Chris Antonetti, David Forst and Jed Hoyer. Antonetti and Forst are in-line for GM jobs in Cleveland and Oakland respectively once their current bossess step aside and move upstairs in another year or two. Not sure you can read anything into this development, other than the fact that teams appear reluctant to allow front office talent to just walk away.

If you ask me, the best Avila to help these M's would be Bob Avila (or Vila, if you want to spoil a good punch-line). I hear he's pretty good at building things.

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