SEATTLE — If Sunday’s season finale was a celebration what almost was for the Seattle Mariners, Tuesday’s year-end press conference with manager Lloyd McClendon and general manager Jack Zduriencik was more of a time for honest assessment of how far the team came in 2014, and how far it still has to go if the Mariners are going to be more than a scrappy, feel-good story next season.
And if anything should encourage Mariners fans heading into this offseason, one of the most important of Zduriencik’s tenure in Seattle, it is the disappointment both men expressed at falling short. The Mariners won 16 more games than they did a year earlier, and they played meaningful baseball until the final day of the season, huge steps forward. But what McClendon and Zduriencik kept coming back to wasn’t that the Mariners surpassed realistic expectations, but rather that they didn’t do enough.
“Ultimately, everybody’s goal is to win the World Series, and that’s our goal here,” McClendon said. “That’s one of the things I want to impress upon our fans — we’re not satisfied with the year that we had; we’re pleased with the improvements that we made, but in the end we want to win a World Series. And I think we all would agree that this organization is certainly headed in the right direction.”
And for the first time in a long time, it’s hard to argue with somebody making that claim about the Mariners. Consider it the ultimate sign of progress that McClendon can say everyone should agree the Mariners are headed in the right direction, and it doesn’t sound outlandish.
At this time a year ago, the Mariners were coming off of another losing season, they were looking for a new manager, and had a lot more question marks than answers. Heading into spring training, you could safely pencil Robinson Cano in at second base, Kyle Seager at third, Mike Zunino behind the plate, and as far as position players were concerned, the rest was a mystery. This spring the Mariners will know a lot more about their team, and can spend less time deciding position battles and more time fine-tuning.
“The day the season ended, I was excited about spring training and the possibilities, because we do have a lot of pieces in place, and we have a lot of questions that are already answered,” McClendon said. “There are a lot more things we can concentrate on as far as getting this club ready. I’ve said it time and time again this year, we’re a little challenged offensively, and I think Jack is committed to going out and acquiring the pieces that we need, and we’ll see how that fits in, but I’m really excited about next year.”
And as McClendon notes, there are still issues. As good as the Mariners pitching was this season, finishing with a franchise best 3.17 earned-run average, the Mariners would have easily made the playoffs with even a mediocre offense. But despite the addition of Cano, the growth of Kyle Seager, and the second-half emergence of Dustin Ackley and Logan Morrison, Seattle was again one of the worst offensive clubs in the American League.
“One thing that’s really interesting about our club, I think we’re a club that’s built for the playoffs, but now we’ve got to get ourselves to the point where we’re built for the regular season,” McClendon said. “I don’t think there was a team in baseball that wanted to face the Seattle Mariners in the playoffs because our pitching is just so good, but from an offensive standpoint we’ve got to get better, because you’ve got to be good over 162-game schedule … We’ve still got our work cut out a little bit.”
Which brings us back to Zduriencik and why this offseason is so important for him and the Mariners. Barring a stunning trade, Zduriencik won’t add a player of Cano’s caliber this offseason, nor will he re-sign a Hall of Fame caliber pitcher like Felix Hernandez because, well, he already did that. But what Zduriencik can do this offseason is the kind of fine tuning that could transform the Mariners from an 87-win team that falls just short into one that wins 95-plus games and is playing in October.
“We’ve been trying to get to this point the last five years prior to this one, trying to build it, trying to get a group of players who are gong to be with you, trying to get young kids to mature,” Zduriencik said. “We know how close we were. Were we disappointed at the end? We were very disappointed.”
McClendon makes no secret of the fact that he’d like to add a proven bat or two to his lineup — “(Shoot), I’ll take three or four,” he joked — and find offensive help, whether it’s making a big splash by signing Victor Martinez or making a trade, or just making smaller moves that collectively can make an impact.
Just as importantly, Zduriencik and McClendon need to make honest assessments of players they already have and figure out who is ready to make the leap (D.J. Peterson?), or whose strong finish to the season is a sign of things to come and not just another tease (Morrison and Seager?). McClendon was blunt in calling Justin Smoak’s season a disappointment, and Zduriencik didn’t mince word when he said Michael Saunders needs to do a better job of coming into the season ready for the rigors of a full season, so it’s safe to say players will be held to a higher standard after getting a taste of success.
From the top down, this offseason is less about patting each other on the back for a job well done, and more about figuring out how to take that last step to being a playoff team capable of making a run in October. Mariners fans, jaded and scarred by more than a decade of losing, slowly began to open their hearts to the Mariners once again. Now it’s up to the team, and especially Zduriencik and McClendon, to make sure those hearts aren’t broken yet again.
“Is there room for improvement? Absolutely,” McClendon said. “Will we get better? Absolutely.”
Herald Columnist John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com
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