A throng crowded the Blue Jays dugout, waiting for Toronto manager John Farrell. Meanwhile, the man who may have spent perhaps as much time as anyone else interviewing for Red Sox dugout positions drifted past the media masses undisturbed and amused.

Farrell was the man whom the Red Sox wanted to be their manager last offseason, and the former Sox pitching coach likely will vault once again to the top of Boston's wish list if/when current skipper Bobby Valentine is fired. But one of Farrell's coaches, Torey Lovullo, could represent a relevant Plan B. 

Lovullo spent the 2010 season managing the Red Sox' Triple-A affiliate, earning raves for his intelligence and clubhouse demeanor. It was his ninth season managing in the minors (the first eight came in the Cleveland system, with five of those years coming under Farrell when he was the director of player development in Cleveland). After the 2010 campaign, when Farrell was named Blue Jays manager, he added Lovullo to his big league staff as a first base coach, a role in which the first base coach is wrapping up his second season. 

Last offseason, after Francona was fired, Lovullo interviewed for the Red Sox' managerial vacancy. He received high marks. 

“Creative, smart, hard-working. He’s a guy who really cares about players,” GM Ben Cherington said after the managerial interview with Lovullo. “We certainly already know that we can work with [Lovullo] effectively, so this was mostly about transferring that and trying to put that in a major-league context.”

Lovullo was one of the last candidates eliminated in the process, the final cut before the team settled on Bobby Valentine and Gene Lamont as its two finalists. 

But the end of the Red Sox' managerial search was not the end of the Sox' offseason engagement with Lovullo. After the team hired Valentine, the 47-year-old California native was brought back to Fenway to interview as a potential bench coach under Valentine. 

"It was maybe a week after Bobby was hired. I had a chance to sit down and talk with him for several hours one afternoon and basically interview for the position," said Lovullo. "I was honored by the fact that they considered me for that position. I didn't really have an outlook [on the likelihood of being hired]. In baseball, you learn to sit down and talk about things. When you're interviewing and going through the process, you just try to keep your thoughts as neutral as possible, do my best to see if my thoughts aligned with Bobby and if I could get the position."

He did not. Instead, the job of bench coach went to Tim Bogar, who had served as a first and third base coach under Valentine's predecessor, Terry Francona. 

Still, the fact that Lovullo interviewed for the bench coach position is intriguing on a few levels: 

1) It underscores the favorable impression made by Lovullo on the Sox organization, giving credence to the notion that he might once again be a candidate for a job (or jobs) in Boston should there be turnover of the coaching staff this offseason – particularly if the process of securing the right to talk to Farrell proves challenging;

2) The fact that Lovullo was brought in to interview with Valentine (the bench coach interview was a one-on-one exchange between the two; that being said, members of the Red Sox front office had sufficient familiarity with Lovullo from both the managerial interviews and his work in Pawtucket that no interview was needed) points to the fact that there was an interview process with multiple candidates, and that Bogar was not simply presented to Valentine as a fait accompli;

3) At a time when there is evident intrigue over whether the Blue Jays and Red Sox can reach some kind of agreement to let Farrell interview for the Boston job, Lovullo’s interview suggests that the two organizations can find middle ground about employees. 

“[The opportunity for Lovullo to interview as bench coach] had all been done from [Cherington] to our GM, Alex [Anthopoulos]. Alex let me know the position was open and they wanted to interview me for it,” said Lovullo. “I was honored by it.”

Much, of course, has been made of the Blue Jays’ change of team policy last winter to prevent members of the organization from leaving for a lateral position. But Lovullo pointed out that the opportunity to move from first base coach to bench coach represented a promotion, and thus wouldn’t run afoul of the new team policy, which seemed a more direct effort to prevent Farrell from interviewing with for the Red Sox’ managerial vacancy. 

“I think the way Alex was looking at it, I was a first base coach, the next progression through the coaching line is to be a bench coach or a third base coach,” said Lovullo. “I think manager-to-manager is more of what he was talking about with the change of policy, but that it was a promotion from first base coach to bench coach. He thought it would be a good opportunity for me.”

Will another opportunity with the Sox float Lovullo’s way this offseason? Or might the opportunity come in Toronto if Farrell ends up leaving for Boston? Time will tell. But it seems fair to say that John Farrell is not the only member of the Blue Jays roster who is of considerable interest to the two AL East teams.