Mariners fire Bavasi, promise a 'new plan' Pelekoudas steps in as interim general manager
By JOHN HICKEY P-I REPORTER
The Mariners' season-long belly flop claimed another victim Monday morning when the team fired general manager Bill Bavasi.
The Mariners, who expected to compete for a spot in the American League playoffs, instead have the worst record in the majors: 24-46 after Monday's 6-1 loss to the Florida Marlins at Safeco Field.
On consecutive Mondays the Mariners have axed their hitting instructor, Jeff Pentland, and Bavasi, who was replaced on an interim basis by his assistant, Lee Pelekoudas.
Future Mondays, or any other days, could yield more moves.
"I expect the manager, the players and the coaching staff will get going," CEO Howard Lincoln said at an afternoon news conference when asked about the team's future. "We are open to all ideas. Nothing is off the table. We are prepared to make other changes.
"Ultimately, the buck stops with me. We have a seven-person board of directors. And I'm the representative of Nintendo (and majority owner Hiroshi Yamauchi). I have let both know that I'm ultimately responsible."
For now, the rest of the front office survives, as do manager John McLaren and his coaching staff. Still, it was made clear that with a $117 million payroll, the Mariners cannot continue to play losing baseball without further changes.
McLaren's job might be safer now because Lincoln and team president Chuck Armstrong will likely want the new general manager to choose a manager.
Although Pelekoudas will take over baseball operation for now, Armstrong will begin a search for Bavasi's permanent replacement. Pelekoudas will be one of the candidates, Lincoln said, but Armstrong will put together a list of other possibilities.
Because most of those candidates are employed elsewhere, it's likely Pelekoudas will finish out the season before interviews begin in October.
"When you do this job, you have a fiduciary responsibility to look at the situation from an owner's point of view," Bavasi said. "You don't have any money on the line, but you have sweat equity. The club on the field can perform one heck of a lot better than it has. No one has suddenly gotten older. They have learned to become dysfunctional."
With that last sentence, Bavasi put his finger on the problem. The Mariners are going in more different directions than luggage at SeaTac. The offense has been brutal. The defense has been grim for most of the year. The bullpen has done well for a month. For the first three weeks, the starters were pitching well.
"They don't play the way they can," Bavasi said. "All performances are way below average and below possible expectations. We need to grab each other by the throat. We've encouraged that, but it hasn't happened. I see people underperforming for no good reason. They can't look to a manager or a coach to get them out of it. Their ultimate rescue will be themselves."
Bavasi said the lack of a player like Jose Guillen, last year's right fielder, has led to some of the issues. Guillen was willing to step up to players who weren't playing smart baseball or who were causing distractions.
"The 1970s A's fought each other, but when they went between the white lines, not one of them had white line fever," Bavasi said. "(In Seattle), some of them have got the fever. Some of them just don't know how to play. They play dysfunctionally, but they aren't bad guys."
The Mariners know the problem. What they don't know is the solution. This team simply hasn't been cohesive or combative or fiery. Lincoln is using the firing of Bavasi as a message to everybody else to step it up. Or else.
Pelekoudas, who met with the players and coaches Monday, said pretty much the same thing.
"The team is just flat underperforming," he said. "There has got to be a reason why so many have performed so far below their career averages. We're in mid-June, and things can change. Things can change with personnel, things can change with quality of play, as well."
Can the team as currently constructed win?
"It should," Pelekoudas said. "It should win more than we're winning now, put it that way."
The players generally were unhappy to learn Bavasi had been fired, and they had some of their own ideas.
"It's unfortunate that Bill was the fall guy for it," closer J.J. Putz said. "Everybody here has the utmost respect for him. Great guy, but for whatever reason it just hasn't worked out for us.
"Whatever was happening isn't working, and I don't think it's fair to put all the blame on Bill. All he does is bring who he thinks is going to help win, and he's done that, and from top to bottom, nobody's performed the way they should be."
DH Jose Vidro said he thought Bavasi had put a winner on the field.
"When we signed (Carlos) Silva for the rotation, then traded for (Erik) Bedard, I was the first to say this team should win the division," Vidro said.
"But we haven't done what we thought we should have done, and I don't know why."
Vidro could be one of those to pay the price of that failure in terms of trade. It's not clear if Pelekoudas is ready or willing to trade just yet, but the trade deadline isn't until July 31.
Armstrong said while past Mariners teams have talked about bringing in talent at the deadline, this one might head in the other direction.
"We may be active, but the other way," Armstrong said. "At 21 games under (.500), we already are looking ahead. There may be teams in the race who might be interested in one or more of our players."
Bavasi said one of the reasons general managers get fired it to change the dynamic. He would keep the team basically together, although he admits others may want to tear it apart.
"One reason you make changes with the GM is that I don't want to turn this team over," Bavasi said. "I think the right talent is here. They need one guy to stir the drink."
Pelekoudas, who helped build the current roster, now gets a chance to run a club after three decades in the organization. He joined the Mariners in December 1979, before their third season.
"Any time you get a chance to run a ballclub, you want to go for it," Pelekoudas said. "But these are not the circumstances you want to get a job under.
"(Roster) decisions were made; we made them as an organization. ... Whether it's the same person correcting them or a different person correcting them, they still have to be corrected."
Manager McLaren tweaks outfield, shifts Ichiro back to right
Associated Press
Updated: June 17, 2008, 1:53 AM ET
SEATTLE -- With his team in huge trouble, Seattle Mariners manager John McLaren decided he's going to start tinkering. His first move: sliding Ichiro Suzuki back into right field.
Suzuki was back in his corner outfield spot for the first time since the end of the 2006 season on Monday night when the Mariners, with the worst record in baseball, opened a three-game series against the Florida Marlins.
"It feels like going to my yard," Suzuki said through a translator after Seattle's 6-1 loss on Monday night. "They came to me about it and said, 'Let's do this for the future.'"
Suzuki switched to center field last year when the Mariners signed Jose Guillen as a free agent. Suzuki played 155 games in center last season and all 69 this year before Monday night.
This won't be a one-night stand for Suzuki. McLaren said he's been considering the move for some time, and Suzuki is on board for whatever changes McLaren wants to make.
"I've been thinking about it for over a month. It's nothing against Ichiro in center field, of course. I just think he's a great right fielder and I want to see his zest and smile and everything going," McLaren said. "What I remember is just spectacular things and I want to try that. I'm not sure it's going to work or make any difference whatsoever, but I'm going to try it."
Suzuki played center field occasionally for the Orix Blue Wave in Japan, but was specifically a right fielder when he came to Seattle in 2001, the year he was the AL MVP. Back then, he had the luxury of slick-fielding Mike Cameron in center, but when a gap developed after Cameron left, Suzuki moved to center and the Mariners signed Guillen to play right.
With Guillen gone after one season, the Mariners have used five different right fielders this season: Brad Wilkerson, Wladimir Balentien, Willie Bloomquist, Mike Morse and Jeremy Reed. Bloomquist got the start in center on Monday with Reed likely to share time.
Before the game, McLaren said Balentien would get a tryout during batting practice to see if he can play center as well. It was pretty short, as Balentien was optioned back to Triple-A Tacoma after Monday's game and catcher Jeff Clement was called up.
"When I close my eyes and think of Ichiro, I think of [No.] 51 in right field," McLaren said.
McLaren has also thought of moving Suzuki in the batting order, but has not figured out who would take his spot leading off. Suzuki is hitting .293 with three homers, 18 RBIs and 30 stolen bases this season.
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