Grading the Mariners: A midseason report

Finish 30th among 30 teams in batting average, runs, home runs – the Seattle Mariners did that last year and understandably thought there was nowhere to go but up.

So the team brought in a new manager, new hitting coach, new faces such as Jack Cust, Miguel Olivo, Adam Kennedy, Luis Rodriguez, Brendan Ryan … and impossibly, constructed an offense worse than that of 2010.

The Mariners hit .236 last season.

They’re batting .224 this year.

The Mariners hit 101 home runs last season.

They’re on pace to hit 98 this year.

The Mariners scored 513 runs last season – the worst since the designated hitter was introduced in 1973.

They are on pace to score 535 runs this season – the second lowest team total in the DH era.

“There’s no secret about our offense and the way we struggle to score runs,” manager Eric Wedge said. “The way we win games is with pitching and defense and trying to scratch out just enough runs.”

The Mariners have been shut out six times. In 16 other losses, they scored once.

That’s 22 of 48 losses when the only chance the Mariners had to win was to pitch a shutout. In 12 other losses, Seattle scored twice.

“Our pitching has been ridiculous,” Kennedy said. “Most of the losses we’ve had, they gave us the chance to win in our final at-bat.”

For the second consecutive season, the Mariners trail all big-league teams in the key offensive areas, ranking 30th in runs, average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage.

A playoff push, even in the mediocre division that is the American League West, seemed possible until the final days before the All-Star break when the Mariners lost five consecutive games to fall 71/2 games behind the first-place Texas Rangers. But as good as the pitching has been, the Mariners can’t contend without more offense.

In 2010, general manager Jack Zduriencik said his team had underachieved – and fired two managers and a pair of hitting coaches.

This season, Zduriencik hasn’t said much, and neither Wedge nor his batting coach, Chris Chambliss, are thought to be in any immediate danger.

“One of the reasons I wanted Chris is I knew he was tough, and that he was going to have to be, trying to turn this around,” Wedge said.

Third baseman Chone Figgins has become the poster boy for Mariners offensive failures. A year ago, after batting .235 at the All-Star break, Figgins inched his first-year numbers in Seattle to .259 – the worst full season of his career.

Now in the second season of a four-year, $36 million contract, Figgins is batting .183 and has lost his job, first to Kennedy, now to rookie Kyle Seager.

Similarly, free agent designated hitter Cust has lost his job, having batted .211 with three home runs.

Worse, Ichiro, the face of the franchise and the spark to Seattle’s offense since 2001, is batting 61 points below his .331 career average.

There have been other failures at the plate – Milton Bradley and Michael Saunders opened the season playing in left and center field. Neither is still on the roster. Franklin Gutierrez got to the All-Star break batting .187, Miguel Olivo .223, Justin Smoak .229.

Small wonder the Mariners turned to their farm system quickly and often.

“We’re finding out who can play, what roles they can fill, how well they adjust,” Wedge said of his young players. “We want to win games, first and foremost, but we have to develop a team, too.”

The 2011 rookie class has included Dustin Ackley, Mike Wilson, All-Star Michael Pineda, Josh Lueke, Dan Cortes, Greg Halman, Carlos Peguero, Seager, Blake Beaven and Tom Wilhelmsen.

Pineda won eight games before the break, Ackley batted .304 in his first 20 games, Halman .305 in his first 24. Peguero has shown power – six home runs – but struck out 52 times in 141 at-bats.

Seager has played four games, walked once and singled.

With 71 games remaining, the Mariners’ youth movement will continue. Players such as Mike Carp and Mike Wilson will likely get second looks. Rookies such as Alex Liddi and Matt Mangini will be up in September, if not sooner.

“These young guys are the future, and some of them could be the keys to the future,” Ryan said. “With our pitching, if we improve our offense just a little, we win more games. If we improve it a lot, there’s no telling how many more games we’ll win.”

What the Mariners are searching for is a young nucleus to a team that hasn’t held its age well. At the moment, they have seen promise but precious little on-field production.

With players such as Smoak and Ackley, the team has offensive pieces. With most of the other rookies, they have question marks.

The issues Seattle faces go beyond who’s coming – among the largest is what to do with those already here. Are the down seasons by veterans a signal that the end is near?

Ichiro is 37, and has looked it in 2011. He is signed through 2012. Figgins is 33, owed 21/2 more years under his contract. Cust is 32, and most would be surprised if he’s still in a Mariners uniform by mid-August.

Then there’s infielder Jack Wilson, 33. The Mariners will continue trying to move him, but given his status – he’s appeared in only 47 games – and a .226 batting average, asking much in return seems pointless.

Gutierrez, 28, remains a brilliant center fielder, but with a career average of .260 and a contract through 2013, the Mariners see him as a bottom of the lineup hitter.

One thing the Mariners don’t want to do is, for instance, move Figgins in a deal in which they pay most of his remaining salary, then watch him flourish with another team on their dime.

As they try to retool an offense, however, Figgins doesn’t seem to fit any more than Wilson or Cust.

A team whose hitting is historically bad is trying to add through its farm system, but may well need to move veteran deadwood just as badly.

It’s hard to imagine anyone on this team the Mariners couldn’t hit .224 without.

larry.larue@thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/mariners