Could Dusty Wathan be next Phillies manager?

STEVEN M. FALK / Staff Photographer Dusty Wathan looks on from the IronPigs dugout in May. Dusty Wathan spends the first five months of the baseball season riding buses, eating sometimes-questionable meals, and writing monotonous player reports, all while grooming the future of the Phillies. He is a baseball man, one who has spent the last 24 seasons in the minor leagues.

Wathan, the manager at triple A, has spent the final month of the last few seasons in the majors as an extra coach on the Phillies staff. It is a small reward that says his work has not gone unnoticed. A bigger reward – the ultimate one – might be looming.

The Phillies will interview Wathan this month for their manager…