Postseason or bust
Forget about hollow pretenses. Six dreary years out of the postseason have taken care of those.
From trading five players for new ace Erik Bedard to going all out to beat the rival Los Angeles Angels – in spring training games – the Seattle Mariners have made their 2008 mandate clear: playoffs or bust.
“Oh, we’ve got the bar set high, believe me,” manager John McLaren said. “Anything less than the playoffs would be a disappointment.”
The division seems there for the taking. The Angels have won the A.L. West in three of the last four years but will begin the season with four pitchers on the injured list – including their top two starters and primary setup reliever. Oakland has started a complete roster remodel and Texas is, well, still Texas, in search of even passable pitching.
Seattle spent $48 million to give former Minnesota Twins innings-eater Carlos Silva the No. 3 job in its rotation. Then last month the Mariners traded outfielder Adam Jones, left-handed reliever George Sherrill and three prospects to the Baltimore Orioles to get Bedard. He will start Monday’s opener at home against Texas.
All-Star Ichiro Suzuki has been waiting six years for such a bold stroke. The franchise cornerstone has often complained that the organization lacked dedication to winning a World Series, which Seattle has never done since entering the league in 1977.
“We made a big trade, the biggest of my career in Seattle,” Ichiro said, through an interpreter. “It was a trade that we didn’t try to avoid risk. To gain power sometimes we need to take big risks. And the Mariners showed that by trying to get better.”
Bedard and Felix Hernandez, who turns 22 next month, give the Mariners a rotation that new pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre said could be the best he’s tutored in 22 years of coaching. That means better than World Series winners with the Yankees and the 1986 Mets.
It’s good enough to force Miguel Batista, the staff leader with 16 wins in ‘07, into the No. 5 starter’s job. Jarrod Washburn, who has a new change-up this season, is slotted between Silva and Batista.
Flush with profits from still-attractive Safeco Field and an increase in attendance last season, the Mariners upped their already gaudy payroll to more than $115 million. General manager Bill Bavasi said the Mariners have flexibility to add payroll for a playoff push.
“We definitely have what it takes to be there,” veteran designated hitter Jose Vidro said. “Now, it’s up to us.”
Yet Bedard compiled spring numbers so bad they were hard to ignore. Known for allowing only one home run in every two games during his career, Bedard allowed nine homers in six spring starts and had an 8.63 ERA.
Halfway through his less-than-splashy first month with the Mariners, Bedard said this spring was like many he had with Baltimore – working on his curveball, building arm strength for his fastball and ignoring results.
“Compared to others, I would say pretty close. No difference,” Bedard said. “If I would do that bad the rest of the spring, that would be different.”
He did. So it is.
Bedard didn’t throw from Aug. 26 until last December because of a strained right oblique. So it could be he is just getting into pitching shape.
The Mariners are betting their season on it.
“We’ve got some guys who if they come back and have their type of years we’re going to be in great shape,” McLaren said.
The most vital of those in the lineup is Richie Sexson. The towering slugger endured his worst season in 2007, filled with boos, a .205 average and the lowest power production of his career – 21 home runs and 63 RBIs in 121 games.
The lineup has singles with Ichiro, line drives with Vidro, Adrian Beltre and Raul Ibanez, and sporadic power bursts from Jose Lopez, Yuniesky Betancourt and Kenji Johjima. But it relies on Sexson for game-changing blasts. His revival in a contract year, during which Sexson is earning $14 million, is the key to providing the pitching staff with comfortable operating space.
The Mariners of 2007 drove statisticians nuts. They contended into September and went 88-74. But the were outscored 813-794 and lost six or more consecutive games four times.
That’s led some numbers geeks to think the law of averages will drag Seattle back down this season. The offense is almost the same – minus the 23 home runs and 99 RBIs Jose Guillen took with him as a free agent to Kansas City. Oft-injured Brad Wilkerson, recently a part-timer in Texas, has arrived as a one-year stopgap for Guillen in right field.
The starters didn’t pitch deep enough into games early in the 2007 season, wearing out a talented bullpen. The relievers were exhausted by August, when Seattle began losing 15 of 17 games to drop out of contention.
“We have to start stacking up quality starts,” Bavasi said.
The bullpen is still a concern. The trade of Sherrill leaves unproven 23-year-old Eric O’Flaherty and perhaps Arthur Rhodes, who is 38 and still coming back from ligament replacement surgery last May, as the primary lefty options ahead of All-Star closer J.J. Putz.
Right-hander Brandon Morrow, last season’s hard-throwing rookie wonder, was supposed to be the main eighth-inning reliever. But he’s had a sore arm for weeks after spending the winter starting in Venezuela. The fifth overall draft choice in 2006 may not be ready to open the season.
So despite the off-season overhaul and the spring bravado, Seattle still has concerns.
“We’ve got to get back to the playoff scene,” McLaren said. “Until we do that, we haven’t accomplished anything.”
Seattle finalizes roster
The Mariners essentially set their opening day roster on Saturday, and it will include spring star Mike Morse and speedy Charlton Jimerson as the last two position players to make the team.
The roster became clear after the M’s traded minor league catcher Jair Fernandez to Minnesota on Saturday in exchange for the Twins rejecting Seattle’s offer to return Rule 5 draftee R.A. Dickey.
Seattle then optioned Dickey to Triple-A Tacoma in a surprising move. The knuckleballer and former No. 1 draft choice of Texas, who hasn’t pitched in the major leagues in 23 months, was a spring revelation with a 2.25 ERA, only one home run allowed in 20 innings and the versatility to pitch in a variety of roles.
The Mariners also reassigned five non-roster invitees to their minor league camp: left-hander Arthur Rhodes, who is still recovering from elbow surgery last May and might be ready soon; veteran infielder and pinch-hitting specialist Greg Norton; former Atlanta Braves closer Chris Reitsma; right-hander Roy Corcoran; and infielder Tug Hulett, who played for the Spokane Indians in 2004.
M’s lose last exhibition
Ryan Dempster spent the spring proving himself as a starter again, and his final tuneup for the Chicago Cubs was a success.
The right-hander allowed one run and six hits in four innings, sending the Chicago Cubs to a 4-2 victory over the Mariners in the exhibition finale for both teams at Las Vegas.
Dempster was a starter with Florida and Cincinnati before spending almost all of the past four seasons in the Cubs’ bullpen. He saved 85 games from 2005-07.
He will make his first regular-season start of 2008 against the Milwaukee Brewers in Chicago on Thursday.
Mariners starter Jarrod Washburn also got ready, pitching five innings. He gave up three runs – two earned – and seven hits while striking out two. He is slated to start Seattle’s fourth game, at Baltimore on Friday.
The Mariners, who finished exhibition play 13-16-3, open the season Monday against Texas in Seattle. They will send Erik Bedard to the mound against the Rangers’ Kevin Millwood.