Have Mariners Become Too Old?

If the Mariners manage to re-sign free-agent pitchers Jamie Moyer and Terry Mulholland, they and newly acquired Jeff Fassero will join Randy Johnson to form what has to be the most unusual starting rotation in baseball.

Not only are they all left-handed, by next season they all will be 34 years old.

Which brings up a question:

Instead of a new pitching coach, why didn’t the Mariners hire a geriatric specialist?

Now 34 isn’t old if you’re, say, a college professor or a doctor. But pitching years are a little like dog years; you know, times seven.

While countless examples exist of pitchers remaining prime during their mid-30s, to have almost the entire starting rotation celebrating relatively the same anniversary not only is a potential birthday-cake fire hazard, it leaves little flexibility in contracts and rosters.

While the acquisition of Fassero is commendable - some will argue he was the best left-hander in the National League over the last couple of years - his age makes for some intrigue, particularly because the Mariners have just about bankrupted their farm system in terms of pitching help in the near future.

To get Fassero, the Mariners had to surrender Matt Wagner, 24, a pitcher that Expos GM Jim Beattie, the former Mariner farm director, knows is destined for many years of big-league duty. Seattle tried to push on Beattie another youngster, Bob Wolcott, but Beattie knows that Wolcott could be another in a long line of Mariner arms rushed too soon to the big club.

Mariners manager Lou Piniella is not concerned with the consequences of Wagner’s departure. In fact, after last season’s pitching debacle, Piniella is not in the mood to even have a conversation with any pitcher younger than Sandy Koufax.

As one who has been around World Series winners, Piniella knows how fleeting the opportunities are, and it’s clear next season may be as good as it will get in his time in Seattle. So the pursuit of Fassero, was a no-brainer. He’s good, he’s experienced, and he’ll make a little less in 1997 than the departed Chris Bosio did in 1996.

But the chase of free agents Moyer and Mulholland is a little different. Both have expressed a desire to return - as if there’s a pitcher in baseball who wouldn’t like six runs a game behind him - yet it may not be as obvious as it would seem.

Mariners vice-president of baseball operations Woody Woodward is well aware of the rotation’s potential lopsidedness, and its limited future. Fassero’s new $13.5 million contract goes for three years.

There is potential for the rotation to age ungracefully, figuratively shuffling into the new stadium in 1999 in walkers. Which is why the Mariners are far more needy of quality seasons from at least two among Wolcott, 23, Sterling Hitchcock, 25, Rafael Carmona, 24, and Salomon Torres, 24, than it might appear.

The dilemma is why new pitching coach Nardi Contreras is already in the Caribbean, where Carmona has been ordered this winter to develop a change-up so hitters can’t sit on his fastball. Similar tutorials await the other youngsters.