SEATTLE -- Lou Piniella is leaving the Seattle Mariners, the latest marquee name in a recent exodus that's included Ken Griffey Jr., Randy Johnson and Alex Rodriguez.

Piniella, though, might be the toughest to replace.

"Even more than our players, he epitomized the Seattle Mariners," chief executive Howard Lincoln said Monday. "He was so helpful. His presence was so important in saving major league baseball for Seattle and the Pacific Northwest."

The Mariners agreed to release Piniella, 59, from the final year of his three-year, $6.8 million contract, allowing him to leave Seattle after a 10-year span when he elevated the team into baseball's upper tier.

"It's fair to say we have parted as good and warm friends," Lincoln said.

Piniella didn't return several messages left at his home in Tampa, Fla.

Mariners officials "understand what I'm trying to do," Piniella told The Tampa Tribune. "It's just too far to be in Seattle. It's a burden on me, on my family. It's just too far from home."

Piniella has parents, who have been ailing in recent years, and grandchildren in the Tampa area.

He approached Lincoln about leaving the Mariners during a season-ending road trip in Anaheim. He met Friday in Tampa with Lincoln, team president Chuck Armstrong and general manager Pat Gillick.

Lincoln and Armstrong called Piniella again on Monday.

"We reiterated our mutual friendship and respect, that we were disappointed he wasn't coming back, that based on what he told us in Tampa Bay there was a pressing and real need to live and work closer to his family in Tampa Bay. We understood and we were sympathetic," Lincoln said.

	Lou Piniella's departure as Mariners manager is pretty much official, but it came from Tampa -- not Safeco Field.

Piniella managed Seattle for the past 10 seasons, taking a perennial no-name team to three straight playoff trips and a record-tying 116 victories in 2001.

Seattle won 93 games this season but finished third in the AL West behind Oakland and Anaheim, and expectations are sure to be high again next spring for a team that has led the majors in attendance two straight years.

Gillick will oversee the search for a successor, but Lincoln declined to say much about what kind of candidate they're seeking. There's no timetable, but the team plans to hire someone before the winter meetings.

"We want to get the best person for this particular job, this baseball team, this ballpark," Lincoln said. "Pat Gillick is focusing on a person who can handle the players we have now, the strengths and weaknesses of our team as it exists."

Teams will be allowed to interview Piniella after "appropriate and reasonable compensation" is arranged, Lincoln said. He declined to elaborate, but compensation is believed to involve money or players.

The New York Mets and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays may be interested in Piniella, a former manager and general manager of the New York Yankees.

"We just became aware of this statement tonight and we are going to reserve further comment until we have time to digest it," Mets spokesman Jay Horwitz said.

The Devil Rays also said they need some time to decide whether to pursue Piniella, whose career record of 1,319-1,135 includes a mark of 840-711 with Seattle.

"We will discuss it internally tomorrow and then make a decision on our course of action," Tampa Bay spokesman Rick Vaughn said.

The last time Seattle went looking for a new manager was in 1992, needing a replacement for Bill Plummer.

Some reports in Seattle have focused on Dusty Baker, who has guided the San Francisco Giants to the World Series. Baker's contract expires at the end of the postseason. Other possibilities include Mariners bench coach John McLaren or pitching coach Bryan Price.

Veteran managers Bobby Valentine, Don Baylor and Davey Johnson are available.

If Gillick chooses to recycle a former major league manager, he could ask his old pal, Cito Gaston. Together at Toronto, they won World Series championships in 1992 and 1993.

"We want to take our time and be very careful," Lincoln said. "This is a major decision for the Mariners."