By Tim Kelly, Sports Talk Philly editor 
It doesn't appear that Buck Showalter will be reuniting with Andy MacPhail, Matt Klentak and Ned Rice in Philadelphia.
According to MLB.com's Todd Zolecki, there doesn't seem to be any traction to the idea of the Phillies somehow acquiring the Orioles manager, or him being allowed out of the final year of his contract to come to the Phillies:
Orioles manager Buck Showalter remains the biggest name connected to the Phillies' managerial opening because of his history with Phillies president Andy MacPhail and Klentak, but sources said there is no chance of Showalter coming to Philadelphia. Showalter is under contract through 2018, and there is no hope Orioles owner Peter Angelos will let him out of his deal.
Though there was speculation because of the connections that Showalter has to the Phillies front-office, it never seemed realistic that Showalter would end up in Philadelphia. With the power structure never certain in Baltimore, I wrote this past summer that it seemed unlikely that Showalter would ever come to Philadelphia, even if he was available. After the Phillies announced Pete Mackanin wouldn't return as manager in 2018, I again wrote that Showalter was an unlikely fit, along with Los Angeles Angels manager Mike Scioscia.
Zolecki isn't the first to report that the Phillies wouldn't be able to land Showalter, as Dan Connolly of BaltimoreBaseball.com wrote last week that he would be "floored" if Showalter ended up with the Phillies in 2018. He cast doubt on whether Orioles owner Peter Angelos would allow Showalter out of his contract, while also noting that he thought Showalter would honor his contract.
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So if the Phillies planned to pursue Showalter, they would have let Mackanin manage the team in 2018, and then pursued Showalter next offseason, when his contract expired. That they didn't do that speaks to the idea that even if they respect Showalter, there may have been too many dominant voices if Showalter joined the organization.
Even if Showalter isn't part of it, the Phillies managerial search does appear to be heating up. According to Matt Gelb of The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Phillies will have interviewed Dusty Wathan, Jorge Velandia and Juan Samuel by the end of the week, which would appear to end the list of internal candidates. ESPN's Buster Olney reported this morning that Cleveland Indians pitching coach Mickey Callaway is among the external candidates that the organization is doing background work on.
