Orioles Expected to Name Miller Manager

Baltimore Orioles officials have decided to make pitching coach Ray Miller the team’s next manager and, barring any last-minute snags, plan to announce the appointment early this week, club sources told the Washington Post on Saturday.

One Oriole official said it’s “99% certain” that Miller will succeed Davey Johnson, who resigned Wednesday. Another club source said Saturday night that majority owner Peter Angelos, General Manager Pat Gillick and Assistant General Manager Kevin Malone need only one more conversation on the matter to make the decision final. Miller probably will be asked to travel to Baltimore on Monday or Tuesday to rework his contract and participate in a news conference, sources said.

“It needs to get done quickly,” an Oriole official said Saturday night. “It’s very, very, very likely to be Miller. Everyone seems to be in agreement. Everyone is satisfied with his credentials. He deserves the chance. The decision is made, basically. It’s just a matter of taking care of the details.”

Miller, reached at his home in New Athens, Ohio, said he hasn’t been told he has been picked to succeed Johnson. Miller said he hasn’t spoken to anyone in the organization since Gillick called him on Friday to tell him that he was a viable candidate.

“All I know is what Pat told me,” Miller said. “I’m just trying to enjoy my weekend, and hopefully I’ll hear from someone on Monday. It would be a great opportunity if I get it.”

Gillick and Malone lobbied for Angelos to give serious consideration to Oriole hitting coach Rick Down but, sources said Saturday, they support the choice of Miller. Angelos was the catalyst last winter behind the Orioles firing Pat Dobson as their pitching coach and hiring Miller for his second go-around with the club. That maneuver was a major success, as the Orioles went from posting a franchise-worst 5.14 earned-run average with one shutout under Dobson in 1996 to a 3.91 earned-run average with 10 shutouts under Miller in ’97.

*

A team of 6-year-olds in Mount Lebanon, Pa., almost got a veteran skipper with a World Series win on his resume, but Jim Leyland decided instead he would stick around to manage the Florida Marlins.

Leyland ended speculation he might jump ship to another team--particularly the Chicago White Sox or Baltimore Orioles--and said he didn’t have any other offers and wouldn’t have entertained them.

“I definitely was either going to manage the Florida Marlins in 1998, or my son’s little league team in Mount Lebanon,” Leyland said.

After wrestling several days over whether to return to a team that will face a depleted roster as new owners try to cut costs, Leyland said he decided he owed it to the Marlins.

“Within the last week or so, I’ve left 10 times, I’ve stayed 10 times, but at the end of the day, this is the right thing to do,” he said.

Leyland had a clause in his contract that would allow him to leave if the team was sold. On Thursday, owner Wayne Huizenga announced that he is close to completing a deal to sell the Marlins to team President Don Smiley.

The new owners will have to slash the team’s payroll--possibly as much as $30 million--to break even, which they have said they plan to do.

Leyland left his last managing job with the Pittsburgh Pirates partly because the team drastically cut its payroll.

Also Saturday, Leyland said the team hired Rich Dubee as its pitching coach. Dubee, a roving minor league pitching coach in the Marlin system, replaced Larry Rothschild, who was hired a day earlier as the expansion Tampa Bay Devil Rays manager.

*

Dwight Gooden, cut loose by the New York Yankees a week ago, does not fit into the New York Mets’ immediate plans either.

The former Met star, who became a free agent after the Yankees exercised an option to buy out his contract for $300,000, contacted Met General Manager Steve Phillips.

“I wouldn’t want him to miss an opportunity because I misled him about our situation here,” Phillips told the New York Times. “At this point he’s not a feasible option.”

The right-hander, who was scheduled to make $3 million in 1998 with the Yankees, told the New York Daily News that he has been contacted by Cleveland, San Francisco, Minnesota and Florida, but did not want to proceed without first touching base with the Mets.