Johnson Awaits Mariners’ Judgment Day Now That He Has Left Surfboard And Beach Behind, Seattle’s Pricy Pitching Ace Confronts Trade Rumors

Randy Johnson had the right idea.

Unfortunately, spending a few months on a tropical island, sipping on fruity beverages and sailing the salty seas on his surfboard

couldn’t chase away the 6-foot-10 lefthander’s baseball blahs.

His escape to Figi didn’t end the strike - and it didn’t prevent the trade rumors from reaching the beaches.

Just about every time he picked up a newspaper, clicked on the television or answered the telephone, it usually brought more depressing news to the fireball ace of the Seattle Mariners’ pitching staff.

It was either more bad news about baseball’s labor dispute, which he never thought would be resolved, or another rumor that had him and his equally large salary getting shipped to another team.

Well, the strike is over. The trade rumors, however, continue to flow.

And baseball’s strikeout king is getting a little sick and tired of it.

“For the last three years, it just seems like my name pops up all the time,” Johnson said Wednesday after workouts at the Peoria Sports Complex. “I realize it’s a business, but this year I almost feel like I’m on trial and I’m just waiting for the verdict to be handed down.

“I’m waiting for the jury to come in and tell me, ‘Does he stay or does he go?”’

The foreman of Johnson’s jury, Mariners’ general manager Woody Woodward, didn’t come down with an answer on this particular day. All the while, though, word keeps buzzing throughout the Seattle clubhouse that Johnson, who is scheduled to pitch in today’s spring-training opener at Peoria against the San Diego Padres, could be peddled away at any moment.

Woodward reportedly has been ordered to chop nearly one-quarter of the Mariners’ $40 million payroll by next season, and Johnson, signed through 1997 at nearly $3.5 million per year, often is seen as the easiest sacrificial lamb.

“We’re not getting rid of Junior,” one player said, referring to superstar center fielder Ken Griffey Jr., “so Randy’s kind of the fall guy. He’s a star, too, a guy we absolutely have to have if we want to win the division, but I don’t think our fans would revolt like they would if we traded Kenny.”

So Johnson, the only active pitcher to record more than 300 strikeouts in a single season, just waits and wonders.

“All I’m going to say about all this is that I’d like to keep Randy Johnson here. He’s my ace. He’s the leader of my staff. I want to keep this club together and see what it can do. . . . I want to add players, not subtract them,” Seattle manager Lou Piniella said.

Kind words, Johnson said, but Piniella doesn’t sign the paychecks.

“I know he wants to see us win, but that’s all this team has been doing the last 19 years, is subtracting,” Johnson said. “The last couple years, we’ve had a great team. It’s just been one or two things, or an injury here or there, that’s kept us from going all the way.”

According to fellow starting pitcher Chris Bosio, the Mariners won’t go very far at all without Johnson, who in the past two seasons, including 1994’s strike-shortened year, is 32-14 with 512 strikeouts.

“What happens when you lose 230 innings and a guy who averages 15 wins?” Bosio asked. “You just can’t take anybody like that away from a staff.”

Bosio, whose name also has been thrown on the trading block, said he and Johnson have tried to downplay the pressures and uncertainty with a little bit of levity.

They joke about it. They pack up each other’s belongings in their locker as a friendly prank.

“But when you’re sitting down next to the guy, it’s not that funny anymore,” Bosio said. “It’s like, ‘Hey, Randy. Did you hear your name again last night on TV?’ And he’ll say, ‘Yeah, for like the 600th time this spring.’ Randy knows what it’s like. I know what it’s like. It comes with the uniform.”

Which uniform will Johnson be wearing?

“I haven’t picked up The National Enquirer,” he said.

“Seriously, though, I’m getting pretty tired of it. I just wish one way or another it would get over with. It’s getting hard to focus. This is kind of lingering over me like a cloud.”