By Kirby Arnold
Herald Writer
Like a pear ripe to be picked, a starting pitcher has appeared within reach of the Seattle Mariners, a team that badly needs to fill out its rotation for next season.
The Mariners, who didn’t pursue free-agent Aaron Sele and lost him to the Anaheim Angels, have just three starters from last year’s rotation: Freddy Garcia, Jamie Moyer and Paul Abbott.
Enter Kazuhisa Ishii, a 28-year-old left-hander from the Yakult Swallows of Japan who became available Wednesday for bids by major league teams. It’s the same process that brought Ichiro Suzuki from Japan to the Mariners last year.
The Mariners aren’t saying, at this point, how interested they are in Ishii.
General manager Pat Gillick is at his home in Toronto and won’t return to Seattle until Monday, the day bids must be submitted for Ishii, and assistant GM Lee Pelekoudas spoke with caution about whether the team will make a bid.
“I don’t know at this point,” Pelekoudas said. “I’m sure we’ll be talking about it.”
Ishii was 12-6 with a 3.39 earned run average for Yakult last season and is 79-46 in his career with 1,277 strikeouts in 1,184 innings.
Those are impressive strikeout numbers, but the Mariners aren’t sure how they translate against tougher hitters at the major league level. Also, Ishii doesn’t have a power arm, and the team already has two soft-throwing finesse pitchers in Moyer and John Halama.
The Mariners also may be hindered by payroll constraints. Upcoming arbitration cases, especially if Bret Boone pulls down an expected $8 million to $12 million this year, probably will put the payroll near the budgeted $90 million level and leave little, if any, money for additional players.
After major league franchises submit bids for Ishii, the Yakult team will have four days to decide whether to accept the high bid or reject it and retain him. If a bid is accepted, the winning team will have 30 days to negotiate a contract with Ishii. Failing that, he would go back to Yakult and no money would change hands.
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