Brewers and Marlins hire new managers not named Bobby V

The Milwaukee Brewers and Florida Marlins flipped the switch on their offseasons this week by annoucing their new skippers.

In Milwaukee, Ron Roenicke takes over for the fired Ken Macha. Roenicke spent the last five seasons as Mike Scioscia's bench coach with the Los Angeles Angels. He'd been on Scioscia's staff since 2000.

In the Marlins' dugout, the new boss is the same as the old boss. Edwin Rodriguez had the "interim" label scrubbed from his job title and was retained as manager for next season. Rodriguez replaced Fredi Gonzalez, who was dismissed in late June.

Brewers play-by-play man Brian Anderson(notes) calls Roenicke "a baseball Tony Dungy." Marlins president Larry Beinfest is "excited" about bringing back Rodriguez.

That all sounds wonderful, but we're wondering why neither team hired Bobby Valentine. (We could add the Seattle Mariners to that mix, who passed on Valentine in favor of Eric Wedge a couple of weeks ago. Oh, and let's not forget the Toronto Blue Jays, who interviewed Bobby V before hiring John Farrell.)

Valentine was initially seen as a "mystery candidate" when the Brewers began interviewing managerial candidates. (He was already familiar with wearing a "M" when he managed in Japan, too.) Just a few days ago, he was reported to be Milwaukee's top choice.

With the Marlins, Bobby V withdrew his name from their managerial search, seemingly spurning owner Jeffrey Loria. But beat writers covering the team say that no one else in the organization wanted Valentine and he likely wouldn't have been hired anyway. (Ripping the Marlins back in July may have had something to do with that.)

And what about the Mariners? Valentine was reportedly very interested in that job, possibly due to familiarity with Mariners' GM Jack Zduriencik. But speculation is that he may have wanted more money than Seattle was willing to pay.

So what gives? After seeing his name mentioned for so many jobs, why is Valentine floating around without one?

Did Valentine fall out of favor with the Brewers and Marlins for the same reason? He earned $4 million a year managing the Chiba Lotte Marines and might want a similar paycheck in his next job. (ESPN also reportedly pays him quite well.) That's Terry Francona money, and he has two World Series rings.

Did Bobby V's demeanor also eventually rub his potential new bosses the wrong way? Concerns over whether or not Valentine could peacefully co-exist with Cleveland Indians GM Mark Shapiro appears to be one of the reasons they instead chose Manny Acta as their manager last year.

A presumed inability to get along with new GM Sandy Alderson is presumed to be why Valentine wouldn't return to the New York Mets (despite the wishes of team beat writers), either.

That would leave the Pittsburgh Pirates as the only remaining team with a managerial vacancy. We can assume Valentine's not interested in that one, right?