M’s strengthen pen with Hasegawa

  • Kirby Arnold / Herald Writer
  • Friday, January 11, 2002 9:00pm
  • Sports

By Kirby Arnold

Herald Writer

SEATTLE – The Seattle Mariners, a team with holes in its pitching staff this offseason, filled a big one in the bullpen on Friday.

The Mariners signed veteran right-handed reliever Shigetoshi Hasegawa to a one-year contract with an option for 2003. The deal is believed to be worth about $4.5 million if the option comes into play.

Hasegawa, a 33-year-old who pitched all of his five major league seasons for Anaheim, gives the Mariners a righty in the bullpen to replace Jose Paniagua, who went to the Colorado Rockies in the Jeff Cirillo trade. Hasegawa, a former teammate of Ichiro Suzuki with the Orix Blue Wave in Japan, mixes his pitches and has a career strikeouts-to-walks ratio of nearly 2-to-1.

“We’ve got an experienced pitcher who throws strikes and knows how to pitch,” manager Lou Piniella said. “Our bullpen is in solid shape.”

With Friday’s addition, the starting rotation is headed toward being a complete unit as well.

The Mariners not only replaced the inconsistent Paniagua with a pitcher whose control is much more reliable, they now can push Joel Pineiro into the fourth starter’s spot and right-hander Ryan Franklin and lefty John Halama into a spring training competition for the fifth spot without leaving the bullpen thin.

“Whomever doesn’t make it out of the rotation mix will be the long guy out of the bullpen,” Piniella said. “This will allow the rest of the pitchers to compete for a starting spot in spring training.”

While the Hasegawa signing puts the Mariners near their budgeted $90 million payroll limit for 2002, the team also continues to pursue a veteran starter who could make the back of the rotation.

The Mariners have spoken with pitchers who’ve recently experienced down seasons, hoping to sign someone to an inexpensive one-year contract that would allow them to re-establish themselves.

It worked last season for second baseman Bret Boone, and the Mariners have shown interest in right-handers James Baldwin and Pedro Astacio (both coming off arm problems).

“It wouldn’t be anything major, but it’s got to be the right guy at the right dollars and he has to be healthy,” said Lee Pelekoudas, the Mariners’ assistant general manager.

Hasegawa had his own health issues last season, but bounced back from a partial tear in his rotator cuff and posted a 3.60 earned run average after spending June on the disabled list. It was his only time on the DL in his career.

“It was nothing serious,” Pelekoudas said. “He pitched in only 46 games last year, but he had pitched more than 60 games three years in a row. He’s shown he’s a reliable pitcher out of the bullpen. With us moving Paniagua, we needed someone to come into that role and he’s a perfect guy to fill that.”

Hasegawa mixes speeds well with a darting fastball, a changeup, slider and splitter.

Best of all, Hasegawa keeps the ball around the plate. In his career, he has 300 strikeouts vs. 170 walks in 442 1/3 innings.

“You know pretty much what you’re going to get every time he goes out there,” Pelekoudas said of Hasegawa. “With our starting staff possibly having a couple of young guys, we felt strengthening the bullpen was a need we had to address. This is a good step forward. He’s got a good variety of pitches, he keeps the ball down, he throws strikes and he competes well. He’s a good, solid addition.”

Besides the Mariners’ pursuit of another starter, Pelekoudas said there has been no progress in the situations involving Boone and David Bell.

“Nothing new, just talking,” Pelekoudas said. “We’ve touched base with all of our arbitration-eligible players and we’re nudging the ball along.”

The team would like to sign Boone to a long-term contract. Boone accepted arbitration and will stay with the Mariners at least one more year.

Bell, who also accepted arbitration, finds himself with no place to play after the M’s obtained Cirillo. They would like to trade Bell but face the probability of releasing him after spring training and being responsible for one-sixth of the yearly salary determined by an arbitrator.

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