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Lee asked M’s ‘to do something … before the season starts … and they decided not to’

Published 5:29 pm Thursday, July 8, 2010

By Kirby Arnold

Asked to elaborate this afternoon on his radio comment today that “the Mariners decided to wait” on making a proposal during spring training, Cliff Lee said within the past hour that he didn’t take it that he’d been slighted by the team.

“It’s their prerogative to do what they want,” Lee said. “They don’t have to do anything they don’t want to do. Can’t force them to do anything. That’s it.”

So what was the discussion between Lee’s people and the Mariners at spring training?

“We told them in spring training that if they wanted to do something, to do it before the season starts,” Lee said. “Even up until I came back (from an abdominal injury that kept him from pitching until late April) we said, ‘I if you want to do something, do it before I start pitching.’ They decided not to and that’s that. There really is nothing to it other than that.”

The Mariners say general manager Jack Zduriencik won’t comment on the situation.

Lee said he would have listened to what the Mariners might propose, although how seriously he would have listened is another thing. Remember, he joked at his introductory news conference after the Mariners traded for him last December that a contract of a few billion dollars sounded nice. He also said that he wasn’t prepared to commit to anything until he was able to gauge the situation with the Mariners and whether it would be enough to have him abandon the freedom of choice (and riches) he’d get through free agency after this season.

“Initially coming into it, you have to see what it’s all about,” he said. “I came to know some of the guys, I was comfortable — good coaches, good teammates. I was open to it, but they decided not to pursue that, so that’s it. Obviously that was my preference (to have the Mariners make a proposal), but they decided no thanks. It’s easy to say they should have done it because I have pitched well, but if I had pitched bad, hard to know.”

A few other pregame Mariners notes:

  • Erik Bedard will play catch on Saturday and, if that goes well, he’ll throw a bullpen session Sunday. He experienced stiffness in his surgically repaired left shoulder and was scratched from his scheduled start Tuesday.
  • Milton Bradley remains out of the lineup because of a sore right knee, although manager Don Wakamatsu said he might play Friday.
  • Reliever Shawn Kelley didn’t begin his throwing program Wednesday as the Mariners had said. Kelley, on the DL with inflammation in his right elbow, got a doctor’s clearance Wednesday and will start throwing Friday.
  • Josh Wilson is starting tonight at shortstop because he is 5-for-10 in his career against tonight’s Yankee starter, Andy Pettitte. Jack Wilson, who is 5-for-23 against Pettitte, is expected to play the next three games at shortstop, Wakamatsu said.

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