"Whoever they select as manager, I definitely would want to talk to him about coming back," said Stottlemyre when contacted at his Sammamish, Wash., home. "I wouldn't want him to be saddled with me unless I was his choice, but I would like to help the Mariners get rid of the blemish we put on them.

"Pitching-wise, I think there is a lot to look forward to, if things break right," he said. "I think the rotation has a chance to be very good."

Stottlemyre lauded the organization's decision to hire Jack Zduriencik as the general manager, calling the new GM "an excellent baseball man" and awaits the selection of the manager, which would have an impact on his own future.

"The manager and pitching coach need a close working relationship," the soon-to-be 67-year-old Stottlemyre said. "If [the manager] has someone else in mind, then I would like to stay in the organization in another capacity. I still live in the Seattle area, and whatever happens I will still be a Mariners booster."

A hugely successful Major League pitching coach from 1986 through 2005, winning four World Series rings with the Yankees and one with the Mets, Stottlemyre returned to the dugout last season as then-manager John McLaren's pitching coach.

Armed with a retooled starting rotation that included newcomers Erik Bedard and Carlos Silva, and a bullpen anchored by reigning AL Fireman of the Year J.J. Putz, the outlook was so promising that Stottlemyre called it potentially the best pitching staff he ever worked with.

A rotation that had five starters with at least one double-digit win season on their resumes had no 10-game winners.

The Seattle starters finished with a 36-70 record and 5.07 ERA, ranking 12th in the AL.

"I didn't say that off the cuff, but really had to eat my words on that one," he said. "We really turned sour, and I take as much heat as anybody. My department didn't hold together the way we thought it would."

Bedard missed more than half the season with hip and shoulder ailments, and Silva, who won three games in an unbeaten April, won just one game the remainder of the season. Veteran right-hander Miguel Batista, a 16-game winner in 2007, won four games in '08.

Stottlemyre called last season the most difficult he's ever gone through as a pitching coach.

That being said, he believes the pitching will be much better in 2009, regardless of whom the pitching coach turns out to be.

"A lot depends on how [Brandon] Morrow and [Ryan] Rowland-Smith adjust to full-time starting duty. All Felix [Hernandez] needs is a few more runs to work with; you have to believe Silva will turn it around and become the pitcher they signed [as a free agent]. He looked great early and then really started pressing. It didn't work out for him, and they still have [Jarrod] Washburn."

Stottlemyre is reserving judgment on Bedard until the left-hander's health is determined.

Bedard, acquired from the Orioles in a five-for-one trade, had a cyst removed from his left shoulder in September and should be completely healthy when Spring Training opens next February in Peoria, Ariz.

"We were without Bedard for a long period of time, and that put pressure on everyone else," Stottlemyre said. "It's amazing what happens when you take just one guy out that you are counting on. I asked the starters to hang on the best they could, but it was really difficult for any of our starting pitchers to get a win, and it went like that for quite some time.

"It was a really rough year, but I still enjoyed it."

Enough so that he would like a do-over in '09.

"I just have to wait and see what happens," he said.