On Tuesday, we learned that the Seattle Mariners are down to two finalists for their managerial search: Former Houston Astros manager Joe Espada and current Chicago Cubs farm director Jason Kanzler, who also has roots with the Astros as a former hitting coach.

It appears that the Mariners want to make a decision by the end of the week, and when they do, we'll have a better idea of what the next iteration of Mariners baseball will look like.

However, there's a new idea which has gained some traffic over the last 24 hours: What if the Mariners hire both guys? One as manager and one as bench coach.

Let's take a look at the positives and negatives of that.

The negatives are pretty obvious, aren't they? Both guys want to be a manager and one of them would have to serve underneath the guy they lost out to. That's a real simple way to breed resentment on a staff, where someone is always thinking to themselves "I could do this better."

That said, if someone takes the bench coach job, they are accepting the position under those parameters, so they'd have to do their best to put those feelings aside.

For example, Manny Acta, who was bench coach under Scott Servais, was passed over for the managerial job when it went to Dan Wilson. He found a way to deal with it, so it can be done.

One other worry? If the front office hires the No. 2 candidate as a bench coach, it's clear that the front office also likes them. Wouldn't the manager always be a little bit worried about the dynamic if things start to go south on the field? Wouldn't you always be a little bit worried that you could be replaced for the other guy? What if that guy maintains a solid front office relationship? That would make me a little squirrly, I think. 

Let's start with this scenario:

Espada is 51 years old. If he gets the managerial job, it would make sense. He's done the job before, he understands how to communicate with a clubhouse and how to manage stars. He has a way of getting through to guys. However, if Kanzler serves as the bench coach, he brings things that Espada doesn't to the table.

He can help Espada with some more of the new-age thinking of the game and he has historically done a good job connecting with players in an assistant coach's role, which he'd have here. Furthermore, as someone who has worked in a front office, he can be an effective lieutenant in terms of relaying how the front office is thinking/operating.

On the other side: Kanzler is 36. He doesn't have the managerial experience, but if he's paired with Espada, that's giving him a really strong bench coach who does have the experience.

Whenever a young coach gets a head coaching job in the NFL we always say "OK, but he needs a strong group of coordinators around him." That's exactly what this is.