John Erardi
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Reds chief operating officer John Allen said Monday the club is "on schedule" with its search for a general manager. He neither confirmed nor denied published reports that he would be interviewing Mike Port of the Boston Red Sox today and Ned Colletti of the San Francisco Giants Wednesday.

"The key thing is that we will make the right decision," Allen said. "We won't be rushed by the media or anybody else to make a decision."

He said the fact that the New York Mets and Seattle Mariners are seeking GMs has not yet impacted the Reds. No Reds candidate has put the organization on hold while entertaining other suitors, Allen said.

"We are going through our process," Allen said. "We can't worry about what other teams are doing . . . If it gets to that, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

One of the Reds' GM candidates is Omar Minaya, currently GM of the Montreal Expos, who is reportedly a candidate in New York and Seattle.

The other five candidates for the Reds job besides Port, Colletti and Minaya are Al Avila of the Detroit Tigers, Wayne Krivsky of the Minnesota Twins, Tim Purpura of the Houston Astros, Dan O'Brien of the Texas Rangers and David Wilder of the Milwaukee Brewers.

Last week, Colletti told the Oakland Tribune: "The Cincinnati franchise is one of the great franchises in sports. It's a great baseball region. They had a tough go of it this year. But they have some great young players."

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Kevin Kelly contributed to this report.