Are candidates leery of front office influence in Rockies job?

Names have begun to emerge as possible candidates to fill the Colorado Rockies managerial position left open by outgoing skipper Walt Weiss.

Among those potentially vying to replace Weiss, who spent the last four year atop the dugout for the club, include Bo Porter — as reported by MLB.com’s Thomas Harding — along with Bud Black and Ron Roenicke, and Rockies Triple-A manager Glenallen Hill — as reported by the Denver Post’s Patrick Sanders.

And Saunders, talking with Sports Radio 104.3 The Fan’s Sandy Clough Friday, said Rockies general manager Jeff Bridich and owner Dick Monfort had promised to look both internally and externally to fill the position.

“I hope that’s not just words,” Saunders said. “I hope they look beyond just Glenallen Hill and legitimately look for somebody with a dynamic personality and some history”

But it may not necessarily be an easy task to lure an outside candidate to Denver due to the “very real fear” of too much meddling from the front office, Saunders said Friday.

“I’m not saying that’s going to happen, but I think that fear is very real,” Saunders said Friday. “That concern’s very much out there among veteran managers. And it’s something that I’m sure is going to come up in the interviews when they start coming around.”

Earlier this month, Saunders, again on with 104.3 The Fan discussing Weiss’ departure, said former manager Jim Tracy walked away from the remaining $1.4 million over issues with the front office.

“Jim Tracy still had one year on his contract, $1.4 million, and he walked away and left it on the table because his disagreements in philosophy. And what he saw his role as a manager and what the front office at that time saw as his role were just too different,” Saunders said.

“And Jim, a very honorable man and to his credit, he said this is not the job that I want, this is not the job that I signed up for, I cannot do my job the way that I want to in this situation, and he walked away from $1.4 million.”

Follow digital content producer Johnny Hart on Twitter: @johnnyhart7.