For Hargrove, Price is right

In an offseason that is sure to bring significant change to the Seattle Mariners, the team is standing pat with its first major decision.

Bryan Price, the team’s pitching coach the past five seasons, will return in 2005 under new manager Mike Hargrove.

The Mariners won’t release official word of the move or any other coaching assignments until after the World Series, keeping with baseball’s suggestion that teams avoid announcements that would distract attention from the Series.

Hargrove told Price over the weekend that he would return.

“I think I’m the right guy to do the job, and I think it’s important that I do a good job in supporting Mike,” Price, 42, said Tuesday by phone from his home in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Hargrove, hired last week to replace Melvin, also considered his longtime pitching coach with the Cleveland Indians and Baltimore Orioles, Mark Wiley.

Mariners management urged Hargrove to keep Price, the only coach off the 2004 staff under contract for 2005, although they told Hargrove the decision was his to make.

Hargrove didn’t return calls from The Herald on Tuesday.

“It was a very difficult situation for him to come into,” Price said. “He’s a 13-year major league manager who has a long history with a pitching coach (Wiley) who has a great reputation.”

Hargrove emphasized to Price that he had the freedom to hire anyone he wanted, and Price was clearly his choice.

“He believes that I’m going to do a great job and that he’s going to get everything I have to give,” Price said.

Price’s challenge now is to lead the pitching staff back to a place among the best in the American League.

Three seasons ago, the Mariners led the league with a 3.54 team earned-run average, and they were second in 2003 at 3.76. This year, with injuries having thinned the bullpen and a parade of young pitchers coming up from the minor leagues, the ERA ballooned to 4.76, eighth in the 14-team league.

The Mariners enter this offseason with a starting rotation of Joel Pineiro, Jamie Moyer, Gil Meche, Bobby Madritsch and Ryan Franklin, although general manager Bill Bavasi said he’d like to acquire another starter. The bullpen has considerable question marks because of the elbow surgery that will keep setup man Rafael Soriano out at least half the season and the rotator cuff injury that makes closer Eddie Guardado an uncertainty going into spring training.

“We have to create some kind of personality,” Price said. “We were never a true power staff or a strikeout staff. Everyone was kind of pitching about the same.”

Mariners pitchers, especially those whose connection to Price goes back to their minor league days, were thrilled to learn that he will return.

“He’s been pretty much all I know,” right-handed starter Ryan Franklin said. “We work so good together. He knows all my flaws and he can pick up things quicker than a new guy coming into it.”

Franklin, perhaps more than any pitcher on the staff, worked closely with Price this season as he tried to solve problems that led to an 11-game losing streak.

“He stayed positive through the whole thing and he’s one of the reasons I finished strong,” Franklin said. “He knows how to pick up on something that I might not be seeing, and he never gave up on me. In the last month and a half of the season, I threw the ball probably as well as I ever had.”

Right-hander J.J. Putz, who figures high in the Mariners’ bullpen plans for 2005, said Price’s return is important to the young pitchers.

“I’m relieved. I was a little worried about him not coming back,” Putz said. “I haven’t had all that many pitching coaches, but he’s hands-down the greatest one I’ve ever had. BP is a tremendous communicator, and one thing that makes him so good is that he adjusts to each person individually.”

That relationship will continue in 2005.

“This represents that I’ve made it through three managers and two general managers,” Price said. “But in the end what matters is that the team succeeds and the pitchers play an integral part in us winning games.”