Sanders Brings Right Punch To M’S

Early in the afternoon Friday, outfielder Jay Buhner was talking about just how good the Seattle Mariners looked on paper two months and 10 days before spring training begins.

“One piece of the puzzle I’d still like to see fitted in is a hard-throwing right-handed starting pitcher in the middle of all those lefties,” Buhner said.

A few hours later, it was so - the Mariners sent left-hander Sterling Hitchcock to the San Diego Padres for 27-year-old right-hander Scott Sanders.

“It was a baseball trade,” said Lee Pelekoudas, the Mariners’ senior director of baseball administration. “It had nothing to do with finances. We needed a right-handed pitcher, the Padres needed a left-hander. This might be one of those deals that really does help both teams.”

In Sanders, the Mariners acquired a man who struck out 157 National League hitters last season in 144 innings, a right-handed power pitcher to complement lefties Randy Johnson, Jeff Fassero and Jamie Moyer in the Seattle rotation.

They also picked up a man who’d been in the Padres organization since 1990 - and was a bit in shock at suddenly heading somewhere else. “I don’t know many Mariners, I only faced them in spring and never did well against them,” he said from his San Diego home. “But I saw ‘em on TV a lot. Man, how many teams have that much good young talent?”

Commissioner search continues

Philadelphia Phillies owner Bill Giles said he hopes a new commissioner will be in place by Feb. 1. But it appears that the earliest a search committee for the owners’ next boss won’t be in place until Jan. 16.

Acting commissioner Bud Selig said last week that he doesn’t anticipate another meeting of baseball’s ruling executive council until the owners’ meetings, which start Jan. 14 at Scottsdale, Ariz.

Arbitration watch

Roger Clemens, Alex Fernandez and World Series MVP John Wetteland were offered salary arbitration Saturday night.

Nineteen players were offered arbitration in the final 2 hours before the midnight deadline, for a total of 22.

Players have until Dec. 19 to accept or reject the offers, except for the 12 players who gained their free-agency rights Saturday. The deadline for them to decide was pushed back to Jan. 2.

The Yankees waited until minutes before the deadline to make the offer to Wetteland. At about 10 p.m., Boston made the offer to Clemens and the White Sox made the offer to Fernandez.

Also among those receiving offers were outfielders Moises Alou (Montreal) and Greg Vaughn (San Diego).

Pitchers Steve Avery and Jaime Navarro, third baseman Todd Zeile and shortstop Kevin Elster were the most prominent players not receiving offers.