Updated Oct 15, 2011 5:08 AM ET

NEW YORK (AP)

Bob Geren has been hired by the New York Mets as bench coach, four months after he was fired as manager of the Oakland Athletics.

Geren replaces Chip Hale, who became Oakland’s bench coach last week.

In four-plus seasons with the A’s, Geren was 334-376, including 27-36 this year before he was fired on June 9. He was Ken Macha’s bench coach with Oakland in 2006.

Geren’s hiring was announced Friday.

NEW YORK — Bob Geren has been hired by the New York Mets as bench coach, four months after he was fired as manager of the Oakland Athletics.

Geren replaces Chip Hale, who became Oakland’s bench coach last week.

In four-plus seasons with the A’s, Geren was 334-376, including 27-36 this year before he was fired on June 9. He was Ken Macha’s bench coach with Oakland in 2006.

Geren’s hiring was announced Friday.

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The seat nearest manager Terry Collins in the Mets’ dugout remains vacant, but the organization is making progress in its search for a bench coach, according to baseball officials who requested anonymity because the club had not made any public pronouncements.

One candidate — former Washington Nationals manager Jim Riggleman — interviewed yesterday. Another candidate — former Oakland Athletics manager Bob Geren — will interview later this week, while Larry Bowa is not considered a candidate.

When the Mets axed Ken Oberkfell last week, part of a major shake-up to the big-league staff, team officials explained they were looking for a bench coach with big-league experience to complement Collins. Bowa spent three seasons on Collins’ staff with the Anaheim Angels in the late 1990s.

Today, the MLB Network reported that Bowa would interview. Bowa, the fiery former manager in San Diego and Philadelphia, works as an analyst for the network.

But while Bowa’s name has surfaced several times, one person with knowledge of the situation indicated there was “nothing” imminent.

That leaves two concrete candidates. Like Riggleman, Geren’s managerial tenure this season ended in acrimony. The Athletics fired Geren, 50, in June as the team spiraled downward. He assembled a 334-376 record from 2007 to 2011.

Geren spent more than 10 seasons in the Oakland organization, and was considered close with general manager Billy Beane. But things took a turn for the worse early this season. He publicly sparred with reliever Brian Fuentes. One of his former players, Rockies closer Huston Street, told the San Francisco Chronicle that Geren was “my least favorite person I have ever encountered in sports.”

Regardless, the Mets felt inclined to bring him in to talk. It was Geren’s departure that kick-started the chain reaction that led the Mets to overhaul their coaching staff. Bob Melvin replaced him in Oakland. A friend and colleague of Melvin, Chip Hale, left the Mets’ staff last week to serve as the Athletics’ bench coach.

With Hale gone, team officials decided their current staff was too thin in terms of major-league experience. Hale was critical to the 2011 staff’s pregame preparation.

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Andy McCullough: amccullough@starledger.com

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Oakland, CA (Sports Network) – Stuck in last place and mired in their longest losing streak in nearly three years, the Oakland Athletics fired manager Bob Geren on Thursday and named Bob Melvin as his replacement on an interim basis.

Geren, in his fifth season managing the A’s, originally signed a two-year contract with the team before 2007 that was renewed each of the last three seasons.

But the A’s finished with a losing record in each of his first three seasons after he replaced Ken Macha, only reaching .500 for the first time last year, when they were 81-81.

They have dropped nine straight games — their longest skid since a 10-game losing streak from July 28-August 7, 2008. They have been swept in consecutive three-game series by the Yankees, Red Sox and Orioles.

“We need to play better,” Geren, 49, said after Wednesday’s 3-2 loss to Baltimore. “First pitch on — every single inning.”

Melvin, a former manager of the Seattle Mariners and Arizona Diamondbacks, will be in charge of trying to turn things around, at least for the time being.

He takes over a team that entered Thursday 27-36 and eight games behind American League West leader Texas.

Melvin, who guided the Diamondbacks to a first-place finish in 2007 and once led the Mariners to 93 wins, will be introduced at a Thursday afternoon press conference in Chicago, where the A’s are starting a four-game series against the White Sox.

Geren originally joined the A’s organization in 1999 as manager of Single-A Modesto and spent the next three seasons at the helm of Triple-A Sacramento.

A former major league catcher — he played four seasons with the Yankees, and one with the Padres — Geren also managed in the Red Sox farm system for three years.

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