It takes some imagination to glean anything positive about the 40 Days of Hell that has become the Mariners 2010 season. But, hey, how about that Cliff Lee?
When the left-hander was acquired for three minor-league prospects this past winter, he was touted as the co-ace, along with Felix Hernandez, in what could be the best tandem of starting pitchers in baseball. After four starts, it’s safe to say Lee has surpassed those lofty expectations.
With his brisk pace, poised demeanor and uncanny control – one walk in 292/3 innings – Lee is not so much a pitcher as a one-man pitching clinic. If I were a high-school baseball coach, I’d require my pitchers to do some homework every five days: Study Lee. Note his habit of sprinting from the dugout to the mound. Note his no-nonsense ritual between pitches, always confident, always the aggressor.
Lee threw another gem Sunday against the Tampa Bay Rays, striking out 10 while giving up just five hits and two runs. And the Mariners lost another game and another series – that’s five straight, in case you’re counting – as they fell nine games below .500.
Because Lee will be a free agent in 2011, Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik realized the best chance of signing the 2008 AL Cy Young Award winner would be to sell him on the Seattle baseball experience: a first-class ballpark seemingly built for left-handed pitchers, a comfortable summer climate, a team with legitimate aspirations of contending for the playoffs.
“We’ll have to romance him a little,” is how Zduriencik put it.
Since making his Mariners debut April 30, Lee’s teammates have scored nine runs for him. Nine runs in four starts. As romances go, Cliff Lee and Seattle is beginning to look like Dennis Rodman and Carmen Electra.
Zduriencik now has three choices.
1. Keep Lee for the rest of the season, then receive a pair of first-round draft choices if – OK, when – he turns down a contract-extension offer.
2. Keep Lee for at least two months, then deal him before the July 31 interleague trading deadline if – OK, when – it’s obvious the Mariners aren’t competing for first place in a mediocre division.
3. Work the phones as soon as possible, offering a trading partner 13 more starts from Lee than it’d get if he’s picked up at the deadline.
My hunch? Zduriencik proceeds with caution and decides on Door No. 2, a logical move that’ll stall the Mariners’ inevitable waving of white flag.
But I’d prefer the general manager strike while Lee’s value is at a premium. For all his virtues, Lee is not the most durable of troupers – he’s already missed three weeks with an abdomen strain – and remember how Bill Bavasi’s failure to move Erik Bedard in 2008 came back to haunt the team? (Bedard’s left shoulder went stiff on July 4, leaving the Mariners with a 34-52 record and a once-coveted trading commodity they couldn’t trade.)
Besides the injury risk, I’m not sure how much longer I can watch the kind of game the Mariners lost Sunday, when they pushed home a run and then went into their we-understand-this-won’t-hold-up-for-nine-innings-but-we-are-who-we-are mode. A Chone Figgins double-play grounder erased one opportunity, some careless baserunning by Franklin Gutierrez erased another.
Afterward, the broadcasters provided a too-familiar refrain: “Cliff Lee deserved better.” Well, yes. And Jason Vargas deserved better Saturday, and Felix Hernandez deserved better Thursday. Doug Fister, with a 1.72 ERA and a modest 3-1 record, deserves better. Every Mariners fan between Anacortes and Zillah deserves better.
The good news is that Hernandez, Vargas and Fister are under the Mariners’ control for the long haul, and it’s conceivable Bedard could join them next month. Starting pitching is not the problem. Stupid baserunning, little power and inconsistent production from everybody in the batting order except Ichiro Suzuki and Gutierrez is the problem. Holding onto Cliff Lee until July 31 does nothing to solve the problem.
Trading Lee sooner than later won’t guarantee the Mariners will be a better team, merely a different one, with more intriguing pieces on board for the future.
What the Mariners need is a trading partner eager to make a splash in 2010, yet blessed with a stockpile of talent on the farm. More specifically, the Mariners need a trading partner convinced Lee can be the difference between a good season and an unforgettable season.
A trading partner such as the Cincinnati Reds.
The Reds haven’t finished with a winning record since 2000. They haven’t qualified for the playoffs since 1995. On Sunday, while the Mariners were wasting away in Tampa Bay, the Reds were overtaking St. Louis for the lead in the N.L. Central.
Cincinnati has a Rookie-of-the-Year candidate in starter Mike Leake, and another starter, Johnny Cueto, threw a one-hit shutout last week. But the rotation remains dicey. Put Lee into it, and the Reds are upgraded from a pleasant surprise to an odds-on favorite.
In exchange for Lee, the Mariners could demand first baseman Yonder Alonso, a 2008 first-round draft pick whose track to Cincinnati has been blocked by first baseman Joey Votto. Alonso, who just turned 23, bats from the left side, has a shrewd recognition of the strike zone, and raked with so much authority at the University of Miami that the Reds guaranteed him $4.55 million through 2012.
Another Reds farmhand to consider is third baseman Juan Francisco. He’s 22, a 6-foot-2, 220-pound masher with middle-of-the-lineup potential. Like most young power hitters, Francisco strikes out a lot – he’s averaged one per four at-bats in the minor leagues – but when he connects, he puts a blast into the ball.
Neither prospect would figure to join the Mariners immediately. (Francisco can’t. He’s recuperating from a recent appendectomy.) But it’s no stretch to presume Alonso could answer a call-up before the end of the season.
Two left-handed hitters, two kids, two reasons to believe this train wreck of a 2010 season can be salvaged. The Mariners must go 71-54 the rest of the way just to repeat last year’s 85-77 finish. The numbers are beyond grim. The numbers are ridiculous.
The number Jack Zduriencik should be thinking about today is 513.
Cincinnati’s area code.
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