UPDATE: Andy Martino reports that Reds GM Walt Jocketty says that the team did not reach out to O’Neill. This sort of sounds like semantics, though, as Jocketty does not deny the report below directly. Maybe O’Neill called them. Maybe it was contact to his agent.
8:16 AM: This would be an interesting way to go if you wanted the Reds to be more [insert adjectives that revolve around the idea of “intensity” which people often said about Paul O’Neill in the late 90s]:
Breaking news: sources say Yankees announcer Paul O’Neill has spoken with Reds owner Bob Castellini about the Reds’ vacant managerial job.
— Michael Kay (@RealMichaelKay) October 9, 2013
John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer says that O’Neill would be interested. He says, however, that it’s a “stretch” to say that the former Red is a candidate for the job. It’s more of a preliminary reach-out kind of thing.
My guess is that they go with Bryan Price, but you can’t fault them for at least considering outside-the-box options.