During the last two weeks of the season, there were fans, writers and even right fielder Jose Guillen who said John McLaren was too nice, that he needed to be tougher and meaner as manager of the Seattle Mariners.
To that, McLaren said he definitely has a tough side and that he isn’t afraid to make difficult decisions for the good of the team. Friday, he proved it.
McLaren fired all but one of his coaches — hitting coach Jeff Pentland.
None of those phone calls was easy to make, but perhaps the most brutal was the one he made to bullpen coach Jim Slaton. Those two are good friends and go way back in the Mariners organization when McLaren was Lou Piniella’s bench coach and Slaton was the pitching coach at Class AAA Tacoma. They both live in the Phoenix area and have played a lot of golf together.
But McLaren made the tough decision and gut-wrenching phone call Friday, telling Slaton that he’s going another direction for the good of the team.
Others got that same call — bench coach Mike Goff, third-base coach Carlos Garcia and pitching coach Rafael Chaves were fired and first-base coach Gary Thurman will return to his old job as a minor league outfield coach.
Say what you want about the way McLaren runs a game, but don’t accuse him of being a wimp when it comes to making the tough calls.
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