Friday, November 30, 2012

Hot Topic Break: Seattle Mariners General Manager


General Manager: Jack Zduriencik

Since the baseball winter meetings are starting Monday I would like to detour from my position by position look at the Seattle Mariners and talk about Jack Zduriencik. There was a good article written on him by Jason Churchill the other day and I would like to follow up with a few things as well.

I don’t need to rehash all of his trades and free agent signings. They are all well documented. Some worked and some didn’t. For this post I would like to focus more on what kind of job it is to be the GM of the Seattle Mariners and not past transactions made by the Mariners.  Would a lot of people jump at the chance to be a major league GM? You bet. There are only 30 of those jobs in the world. But within those jobs, being the Seattle Mariners GM has to be one to the toughest in the league. While we enjoy a nice city and a beautiful ballpark, all be it one that hitters hate, it’s just difficult to get players to sign with the Mariners. I remember years ago when Hugh Millen said that Seattle just isn’t high on the list of young athletes to sign with. There are more exciting cities out there for these players to go to, he said. And I believe that. Seattle is tucked away up in the NW corner of the country, making travel the most of any major league team. And as we are all painfully aware of, we have been a losing franchise, save for a couple of playoff appearances. The ballpark has been a hindrance in trying to sign free agent hitters. I tend to believe the players that have actually played at Safeco and an overwhelming majority have said they do not like to hit here. Believe that or not but it’s the truth. Hopefully the new dimensions of the ballpark with help in this regard.   

Now, can we get good free agents to play in Seattle? Sure you can. I am just saying it is very difficult. Pat Gillick had great success signing FA’s which helped tremendously with our most successful run as a franchise from 2001-2003. Gillick by the way still lives in the Seattle area and has stated he would be interested in becoming the President of a Major League team. Gillick and Zduriencik would form a great team. But do we take advantage that? No, we prefer to keep a guy that has been just receiving a paycheck for like 25 years in our organization. In addition, can you imagine if someone like Bill Bavasi was our GM when Griffey pouted his way out of town the first time? We would have gotten a AA second baseman in the deal if he was in charge. Thank god we had Gillick at that time.

Anyway, back to GM Jack. I think this is the first year that it’s all on Zduriencik to make the Mariners a winner again. In addition to the inherited disadvantages of being the GM in Seattle, he had been hand cuffed with the wasted 18 million a year contract for our singles hitting Right Fielder the last 4 years. Not only did he take up a power position but he took up a bulk of our payroll. Now both are available for Jack to use.
GM Jack said he does have some payroll flexibility for free agents but also talked up the younger players on the team and in our organization. Basically saying he is looking aggressively at the free agent market but also hedging his bets just in case he doesn’t make a big splash. But he has to talk like that because it is difficult to get players to sign here. People say, why we don’t sign Nick Swisher and Zack Greinke. Well, it doesn’t work like that, especially in Seattle. I know people don’t like to hear that excuse but unfortunately it’s not an excuse, it’s a fact. I believe GM Z will do all he can to sign an impactful free agent this winter but “at the end of the day” to take one of Jacks favorite quotes, the player has to want to come to Seattle.  

I have been a Mariners fan since they started and I too get frustrated with our team and the organization just like the next guy but I try and put myself in the GM’s shoes and be open minded about what he is trying to do and more importantly what he is “able” to do. Now with that said, it is time for GM Jack to earn his money. Let’s hope he can get something done to make us proud and excited for Mariners baseball again!         

Article By:

Cecil
Cecil's Corner   

2 comments:

  1. I agree with some of the statements, however, like in the last year of Bavasi, he made a blockbuster deal (at the time) sending our farm system for Bedard.

    I think Jack Z could do the same thing.

    Let's face it, if the Mariners have another 90 - 95 loss season, Jack Z isn't coming back. He needs a bat (or 2 or 3) really bad and I think he is going to mortgage the farm for it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wouldn't hurt to lose a few other ball and chains, namely the people above Jack Z and the uninterested ownership.

    ReplyDelete