Seattle Mariners counting on the kids for 2012

It was a lipstick-on-a-pig moment, but the most Seattle Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik would do was powder the beast’s cheeks.

“We saw some positives, we let the kids get a taste of big league baseball,” he said this week. “But that was just the first step. The next steps will be far more important – and more challenging.”

His manager, Eric Wedge, kept it simpler when talking about the young Mariners of 2011.

“Now we see how much they want it,” Wedge said.

In the aftermath of a slightly improved 2011 – the Mariners inched from 61-101 in 2010 to 67-95 this season – the best that can be said is that the team cleaned house and went young.

The opening day roster included Milton Bradley, Jack Cust, Jack Wilson, Chris Ray, Erik Bedard, Ryan Langerhans and Chone Figgins – and now only Figgins remains.

In the months that followed opening day, Wedge not only began playing rookies, he began playing them at times when it might have cost the team a game.

“I didn’t pinch hit for a guy late, we left a pitcher in a little longer, but that’s how you find out how players react to the tough situations the game presents,” Wedge said. “They know more now about what they need to do. I know more about them.

“And it’s the last year I’ll do that.”

The Mariners broke camp with rookie pitchers Michael Pineda, Tom Wilhelmsen and Josh Lueke.

By the end of April, they’d called up Carlos Peguero and Dan Cortes. Before the All-Star break, the team had taken looks at Mike Wilson, Greg Halman, Mike Carp, Dustin Ackley, Blake Beavan and Kyle Seager.

And the kids just kept coming – 18 in all.

It would be a better sell for the Mariners if they could point to a turnaround in the standings, more wins with the youngsters.

That didn’t happen.

Once into the season, the Mariners’ high-water mark was 37-35 on June 19 – good for second place in the American League West.

From there, they won 30 of their last 90 games.

The best the Mariners can say about 2011, then?

They rid themselves of marginal vets who weren’t going to help them in the long run. They auditioned a roster of youngsters who had marvelous stretches and mind-numbing failures.

Those failures included a club-record 17-game losing streak that began July 6, during which closer Brandon League never had a save opportunity.

The problem was all too familiar for Seattle and its fans.

The pitching was there – a 3.90 ERA that ranked sixth in the American League. The hitting, which cost the team throughout 2010, was even worse in 2011.

The Mariners’ .233 batting average was the lowest in big league baseball, as was their 556 runs scored.

“We gave these kids the chance to experience game-on-the-line situations,” Zduriencik said. “There’s nothing in the minor leagues that can give you that. We didn’t succeed as often as we’d have liked, but what you hope is that our young players learn from what they experienced.”

When it was over, Zduriencik, Wedge and his coaches didn’t pat the kids on the back and send them on their way.

The final week was spent in one meeting after another, with each player brought in and given a very specific winter agenda by the GM, manager and coaches, who made it clear that player’s future was on the line.

Examples?

They want Justin Smoak to come in measurably leaner.

They want Pineda and Wilhelmsen to work on their change-ups.

They want Seager to come in stronger.

What the Mariners want – what they’ve demanded – is an offseason spent committed to improvement that in the past was often left to spring training. Not this year.

“No one won a job this season,” Zduriencik said. “Every position will have competition next spring.”

That includes Ichiro Suzuki’s career-long hold on the leadoff spot.

“That’s not guaranteed,” Wedge said.

The responsibility for each player improving has been put on them. Zduriencik and Wedge wants those successes increased, the failures minimized.

And if every young player does exactly as ordered?

The team will still be short of talent – and Zduriencik and Wedge know it.

The offseason commitment to improve includes Zduriencik and his roster. Through free agency or trade, the Mariners must add at least one productive bat.

Gone are the contracts of Bradley, Cust and Wilson, clearing a combined $21 million from the books. Still, on a team whose payroll was about $94 million in each of the past two seasons, there are issues.

Ichiro and Figgins, who each had poor years, will be paid a combined $26 million in 2012. Felix Hernandez, who had a good year, will make another $10 million.

Those three make nearly 40 percent of the likely 2012 payroll and Figgins may not play regularly – if at all.

Then there are issues like arbitration-eligible players: David Aardsma, League and Jason Vargas. The Mariners aren’t going to arbitration with the injured Aardsma, who made $4.5 million this year and didn’t throw a pitch.

Aardsma won’t be pitching much in 2012, either, and the Mariners may cut ties with him. League made $2.25 million and saved 37 games. Should he go to arbitration, his salary would take a quantum leap.

All those issues must be dealt with, but if the Mariners don’t add offense, it’s difficult to see them doing more than marginally increasing their win total.

In Ackley and Carp, the Mariners have potential pieces that would improve their lineup over a full season. And the team still believes Smoak can be a productive, switch-hitting, middle-of-the-order presence.

That’s unproven.

There are other possible impact hitters – third baseman Alex Liddi, outfielder Peguero – but Peguero’s wild swing and Liddi’s 17 strikeouts in 40 at-bats are sizeable issues.

By next spring, a new wave of young players will get a look, including pitchers Taijuan Walker, James Paxton and first-round 2011 draft pick Danny Hultzen.

Seattle has an abundance of building blocks, and Wedge will be asked to put them together and turn them into a better team. All indications are that’s possible – improving a 67-win team isn’t difficult.

Making it a winning team? A contender?

That will require more than what the Mariners ended the season with on their roster. Without adding a proven bat or two, the offense in 2012 isn’t likely to give Seattle’s pitching enough support to make a sizeable difference.

This particular pig needs more than lipstick to be attractive.

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