Gms Talk Expansion

Labor discussions took a back seat to next year’s baseball expansion draft during Monday’s first day of meetings of major league general managers at Phoenix.

Acting commissioner Bud Selig, the Milwaukee Brewers owner, had been expected to update the general managers on the sport’s ongoing labor dispute with its players. Jimmy Lee Solomon, minor-league affairs director for major league baseball, also had been scheduled to address the gathering.

But neither was present, though Solomon is expected to appear today, Boston GM Dan Duquette said.

Duquette said discussions Monday were limited to the nuts and bolts of the draft, and not whether the teams will be dropped into the American League or split to facilitate interleague play.

Meanwhile in New York, baseball players told a delegation of five owners they weren’t willing to make changes in the deal teams rejected last week, leaving Selig to ponder his next move.

Hal McRae, a finalist for the Philadelphia Phillies manager job that went to Terry Francona, will instead be the Phillies’ hitting instructor, the team announced.

The Phillies also announced that John Vukovich, a bench coach under ex-manager Jim Fregosi, will be the team’s third base coach and that bullpen coach Joe Rigoli will remain in that capacity.

Joining Vukovich and Rigoli on Francona’s staff will be McRae and bench coach Chuck Cottier, a former manager of the Seattle Mariners.