PEORIA, Ariz. — It was an uneasy scene in the Seattle Mariners’ clubhouse Friday.
While most of the players cracked jokes and prepared for the morning workout on the practice field, two first-base hopefuls stayed behind.
Bryan LaHair and Mike Carp cleaned out their lockers and got ready to make the move into the Mariners’ minor league clubhouse. It’s just a short walk around the corner in the same building at their spring training facility, but it might as well have been a million miles away.
The Mariners optioned LaHair and Carp to Class AAA Tacoma, along with right-handed pitcher Gaby Hernandez.
LaHair and Carp, two left-handed-hitting first basemen with power potential, are going to the minors together but it seems they’re not headed in the same direction.
Manager Don Wakamatsu described Carp as a hitter who opened a lot of eyes in spring training because of his smart approach to hitting. But he said LaHair must work on his consistency both at the plate and in the field, and noted his frustration over a three-pitch strikeout in a game early this week.
LaHair and Carp came to camp with high expectations for themselves, but they both understood that, being first basemen, the opportunities were limited. The Mariners are giving Russell Branyan every opportunity to build a consistent swing and better himself in the field at first base, and the at-bats have dried up for others.
LaHair badly wanted to prove in this camp that he’s the power-hitting left-hander the organization believed he would become. He wanted to show that last September, when he hit three home runs in 45 games with the Mariners, wasn’t a real representation of what he can do.
He batted .179 in 28 exhibition at-bats and hit one homer in spring training, and got the dreaded call into the manager’s office Friday morning.
LaHair said he thought about a lot of things after Wakamatsu sent him down, including his family and his future.
“I will be back,” he said. “I will be back in the big leagues. It’s just a matter of when and where.”
Where?
LaHair, who played his first two pro seasons with the Everett AquaSox in 2003 and 2004, is realistic enough to know that his best opportunities with the Mariners may have passed. He feels a strong bond to an organization that drafted him in the 39th round in 2002, but this is his seventh year with a team that is turning a lot of pages from its past.
First basemen like Carp and Chris Shelton — a right-handed hitter who remains in the big-league camp — are apparently ahead of him. Also, the Mariners may need to clear two spots on their 40-man roster if Mike Sweeney and Jamie Burke make the team.
“I want it to be with Seattle,” he said. “I’m still part of the Mariners family. This is where I want to be.”
Carp goes down enthused with what he accomplished at spring training. He batted .304 with one homer and six RBI in 23 at-bats.
“I wanted to come in and show them who I was as a player and I think I definitely did that,” he said. “They got to see how I hit, see my plate discipline. Hopefully I won’t stay down there too long.”
Read Kirby Arnold’s blog from spring training at www.heraldnet.com
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
