Colletti Will Interview Fregosi and Collins

Dodger General Manager Ned Colletti, moving quickly in his search for a manager, is scheduled to interview Jim Fregosi on Saturday and Terry Collins on Sunday, both in the Tampa, Fla., area, and was expected to speak to Lou Piniella as well.

Colletti summoned assistant general manager Kim Ng and vice president Roy Smith from Los Angeles to take part in the interviews. They will travel today to Florida. Director of scouting Logan White might also fly to Tampa in time for the meetings.

The Atlanta Braves on Thursday granted Colletti permission to contact Fregosi, a special assistant to Braves’ GM John Schuerholz. Colletti and Fregosi spoke briefly Thursday night and set up Saturday night’s interview. Earlier in the day, Colletti asked Collins, the Dodgers’ director of minor league operations, to meet with him.

Bobby Valentine, another potential candidate, said he had not been contacted by the Dodgers. He recently agreed to an extension with the Chiba Lotte Marines, but he has an out clause.

Colletti was traveling Thursday to Tampa to attend the wedding of San Francisco Giant General Manager Brian Sabean, his former boss.

Piniella said Thursday he had not yet spoken to Colletti, and Piniella expressed minimal interest in becoming the next Dodger manager.

“It would be a longshot,” he said.

Piniella is the rare baseball manager who, rather than have unemployment thrust upon him, has chosen it.

He has managed four teams since 1986, when he won 90 games with the New York Yankees, and has sat out one season, between the Yankees’ fifth-place finish in 1988 and the Cincinnati Reds’ World Series championship in 1990.

At 62, having buried his father, Louis Sr., in February, and having directed the buyout of his contract with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays last month, Piniella is home in Tampa, unaffiliated with a major league organization, and uncertain what the next baseball season will hold.

Though Piniella fits Colletti’s vision of a proven winner, Piniella is reasonably sure he will not be in Los Angeles come April.

He only recently negotiated his way out of an organization that did not spend to his expectations. There are signs, however, that Piniella already is feeling the pull of the game. He said he met and had “a nice talk” this week with the next owner of the Reds, Robert Castellini, and acknowledged having received at least one other phone call from a major league team.

Piniella chuckled at the prospect of returning to the bench so quickly.

“I’m flattered,” he said, “but I just got out of my thing in Tampa Bay.”

He abruptly left the Seattle Mariners after the 2002 season to join the Devil Rays, with whom he was to earn $4.4 million next season, the last of his contract. His purported aversion to the West Coast in actuality was a desire to return home, where his father was in failing health.

“We’ll see what happens,” Piniella said. “Truthfully, the West Coast thing, what happened a few years ago in Seattle, I just needed to get close to home. That obstruction is not there.”

Otherwise, he said, “I haven’t pressed anything, I’ll be quite honest with you. I’ve talked to a couple teams, but I basically haven’t pressed anything.... I was going to take it easy for a while. I wouldn’t be in a hurry to do anything.”

Piniella worked on the Fox broadcasts during the American League championship series, and since then has made promotional and charity appearances. He liked the television work and would like to do more of it.

If Piniella is his first choice, and assuming Dodger owner Frank McCourt would invest in a large contract, Colletti has a big sales job ahead of him.

Piniella has known Colletti for years, a relationship that was developed through Sabean, who was Piniella’s farm director in 1988, when Piniella was general manager of the Yankees.

“Ned’s a good baseball man,” Piniella said. “You’ve got yourself a good, solid baseball man there.”

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Between general managers, the Dodgers have aggressively pursued free-agent outfielder Brian Giles, according to Giles’ agent. Joe Bick said he’d had “numerous conversations” with Ng and Smith but would not characterize the Dodgers’ chances of signing the 34-year-old native of El Cajon, Calif.

“The one thing that has remained consistent in that period is their interest in Brian,” Bick said. He also said that although Giles has enjoyed playing near home, in San Diego, “to the best of my knowledge, it’s not going to be the deciding factor. We haven’t ruled out a number of the other markets.”

The Dodgers have contacted the agents for free-agent shortstops Rafael Furcal and Royce Clayton, both before Colletti was hired. Cesar Izturis is recovering from Tommy John surgery.

The Dodgers put infielders James Loney, Andy LaRoche and Joel Guzman, right-hander Jose Diaz and left-hander Greg Miller on the 40-man roster.