Thanks, Mariners, But Not This Time Turang, Guetterman Among Players Who Won’t Be Replacements For Seattle
Brian Turang’s lifelong dream has been to play in the major leagues. Not this spring, though.
Because of the players’ strike, Turang hates wearing a Seattle Mariners’ uniform. He would rather be any place but in Peoria right now.
“It’s a bad situation,” he said. “I’m forced to be here because of my minor-league contract. If I did what I wanted to do, I don’t think I’d be around.”
Needless to say, the Mariners haven’t asked the 27-year-old infielder-outfielder whether he’d be a replacement player if the strike isn’t settled by April 3, when their regular season begins in Toronto. They know the answer.
“I’m here as a minor-league player. I’m not here as a replacement player,” Turang said.
About a month ago, the Mariners asked lefthander Lee Guetterman, a veteran of 385 games over nine big-league seasons, the question they did not ask Turang.
Signed by Seattle as a Triple A pitcher last August after being released by California and then San Diego’s Triple A farm club in Las Vegas, Guetterman declined.
“It’s cut and dried for me,” he said. “I decided right away when this strike started, that if it came to this, what I would do.”
Turang and Guetterman, 36, are two of 95 minor-league and replacement players who are at the Mariners’ spring-training camp.
They want to play for the Mariners - when the strike is over. Neither will play for the Mariners in their exhibition games.
Turang, the Mariners’ 51st selection in the 1989 draft, has played in 78 games for the M’s during the past two seasons. He had eight bone chips removed from his right elbow last March 9 and began last season on the disabled list, making three trips to Triple A Calgary.
During the winter, Seattle decided not to put Turang on their 40-man roster.
“I’m totally, 100 percent with our union,” he said. “I understand what they’re doing. I understand what it’s about. I’m sticking with them. I see the owners trying to take stuff away from the players that they’ve already given them. I believe it’s the owners’ fault for not being able to manage their money.”