Mariners Wait To See If Johnson Arrives

Spring training

Joey Cora asked the question with the innocent look of a small child.

“Anyone heard from Randy?” he asked.

It was an open question tossed lightly to the assembled media, players, coaches and the manager of the Seattle Mariners on Saturday.

And the answer was the same from all. No.

Twenty-four hours before Seattle pitchers and catchers began their first spring workout here, no one with the Mariners had talked to the Big Unit, so no one was certain whether he would be on hand today.

And while that issue was the talk of camp, manager Lou Piniella said it wasn’t a huge concern.

“My job is to get these players in shape,” he told a crowded room of media types. “Yours is to look for problems that may not exist.”

It got a laugh, but as the Mariners embark upon their defense of an American League West championship, is Piniella really so unmoved by the will-he-or-won’t-he-show-up questions surrounding Johnson?

In a word, yes.

“When I played, you came to camp to get in shape and the only time players held out was because they didn’t have a contract,” he said. “Today, players show up on time and they show up in better shape.

“Don’t misunderstand me. I hope Randy is here. We want him here from Day One, but the truth is none of our players have to be here before March 26, that’s the union basic agreement. And whether Randy is here today or not, no one will get too excited.

“Spring training is a long process.”

The clubhouse consensus among those Mariners who’d come in early to work out or drop off equipment was that Johnson would be in camp today, and their reasoning was simple.

“If he gets into shape and has a great season, some teams are going to throw a lot of money at him,” said one pitcher. “This isn’t the spring to get a late start. He has too much riding on this year.”

Since November, when the Mariners announced they were not offering Johnson a contract extension beyond their existing deal, which runs through the ‘98 season, Johnson has said little publicly and virtually nothing to the Mariners.

Many teammates were convinced late last season that Johnson had no intention of returning to Seattle after this year, and most believed him when he said his preference was to finish his career in Arizona, where he now lives.

“A lot of players have played under similar circumstances,” Piniella said. “Mike Piazza hasn’t signed beyond this season with Los Angeles. I just don’t think it’s going to be a major issue for Randy, and I know it won’t be a major issue for this team.”

In fact, Piniella has far more pressing matters to attend to in the first week of camp.

Examples:

“We want to have Mike Timlin work on an off-speed pitch - a forkball, a split-fingered fastball, a straight change,” Piniella said. “He needs something to keep hitters honest, because most of his pitches now are all hard, and all close to the same speed.”

“We want to get Heathcliff Slocumb into a “strike one” mode to every hitter, we want to work on his holding runners on base,” Piniella said. “He’s got the stuff to close, but when he fell behind, when his control was off, he struggled.”

“We want to get Paul Spoljaric more confidence. There were times last year when he was unsure out there,” Piniella said. “When we traded for him, we knew he had the pitches to start, and we’re going to stretch him out this spring and see if he’s ready.”

“We want Ken Cloude to keep doing what he’s done, improving, going after hitters,” Piniella said. “I’m counting on him in the rotation this year.”

Piniella knows better, he said, than to get excited early in camp about players who might well disappoint once the games begin. He has traveled that road before, he said.

“But if I were going to pick one kid who might be a surprise, it would be Shane Monahan in left field,” he said. “He’s improved every season he’s been a professional, and when we finally made the trade with Toronto last year, one of the reasons we felt we could give up Jose Cruz Jr. - which no one wanted to do - was that Monahan and Raul Ibanez could be the left fielders of the future, too.

Monahan, 23, climbed through the Seattle system by hitting .283 in ‘95, .281 in ‘96 and then .302 in Class AA last season before playing his final 21 games in Tacoma, where he batted .294. He has 19 stolen bases in each of the last two years.

Signings

The Yankees avoided an arbitration hearing with pitcher Andy Pettitte, agreeing to a $3.75 million, one-year deal. He is the highest-paid pitcher in history with three years of service.

Manager Gene Lamont signed a contract extension that keeps him with the Pittsburgh Pirates through 2000.