Aumont and Fields: Don’t call them closers … yet

Published 11:26 am Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Mariners minor league director Pedro Grifol addressed this in one of my weekly minor league reports earlier this season year, but GM Jack Zduriencik repeated it for reporters yesterday afternoon.

With both Phillippe Aumont and Josh Fields looking like potential big-league closers pitching at Class AA West Tennessee this season, isn’t the organization trying to squeeze two pegs into one hole?

The Mariners’ answer is simple: Who says they’re both closers? With the exception of Randy Messenger at Class AAA Tacoma (he’s now up with the Mariners), nobody is firmly stamped as THE CLOSER at each of the other minor league levels. The Mariners are more interested in grooming these guys for late-game pressure and pitching them multiple innings, then seeing where it takes them as they climb.

“Very, very few people ever come to the big leagues as a closer,” Zduriencik said. “David Aardsma spent how many years in the big leagues before he had a chance to close his first game out? When they get to the big leagues, you don’t put them in the closer’s role initially.

“What we’d like for Aumont or Fields or any guys along those lines is for them to be able to throw more than one inning. You would love them to be able to throw three innings and certainly would like them to be able to throw two. So if they come up and havce success, eventually they matriculate into a closer’s role.

“To say somebody is a closer, we may think that. But there’s so much of the mental game that ties into that, that he not only has to be physically ready but he’s got to be mentally ready, too. Sometimes that’s just a matter of experience.”

Zduriencik also addressed the organization’s decision to make Aumont a reliever rather than a starter. He had nothing to do with the arm problems he experienced last year.

“We went back to when he was a junior in high school and looked at this big phsycal guy and his aggressiveness and said, ‘That guy’s got the stuff to be a back-of-the-game type of guy,’” Zduriencik said. “When we made the decision, it was strictly because of what he is. He’s a big, physical, strong guy. It takes longer to develop a guy as a starter and he can be there in a hurry (as a reliever). We think he has the mental capacity to eventually handle that role.

More important, Aumont has said he loves the late-game pressure. He pitched for Team Canada in the World Baseball Classic in March, and became enamored with the thrill ride of a reliever in a game against the U.S. Aumont pitched the seventh inning of a tight game, loaded the bases with nobody out and then escaped without allowing a run.

“He sought me out at spring training to tell me how good he thought he was in that role,” Zduriencik said. “He was afforded the opportunity and he’s done a nice job with it.”