By Kirby Arnold
Herald Writer
SEATTLE – Maybe it’s best, Brett Tomko says, that the Seattle Mariners trade him to another team.
The Mariners’ little-used right-handed pitcher gave the team that message Sunday after he was sent to the Class AAA Tacoma Rainiers. The Mariners made the move to make room for utility player Ed Sprague, who they called up from Tacoma.
“I said I don’t understand why you wouldn’t move me,” said Tomko, who is 2-1 with a 5.97 earned run average. He has started three games and relieved in six others. “I’m going to go down there and pitch well and put the pressure on them to either bring me back up or deal me somewhere.”
On Friday, Tomko gave up seven hits in three innings of the Mariners’ 14-10 loss to the Yankees.
“What I told Brett, based on his performance, is that it’s pretty hard to trade him,” Gillick said. “He’s got to go out and re-establish himself. He’s got a lot of ability, but the fact is he hasn’t pitched particularly well.”
Sunday’s move was necessary because the Mariners needed an extra position player after left fielder Al Martin suffered a concussion in a collision Saturday with shortstop Carlos Guillen. The Mariners had carried 12 pitchers all season, and it finally caught up with them last week when third baseman David Bell missed time with a stomach illness and later a sprained knee, and then Martin suffered his injury.
Martin probably won’t play for about a week because of the concussion.
Tomko understands the team’s predicament, but he is convinced he would be a much better pitcher if used regularly instead of the occasional work he has gotten as a long reliever for the Mariners.
“This is very disappointing,” he said. “I thought they would have traded me before they optioned me down.”
Mariners general manager Pat Gillick, who continues to search for another hitter, said several teams inquired about Tomko in the offseason. Gillick termed current trade discussions as “lukewarm.”
Gillick said good-hitting position players are difficult to obtain these days, and pointed at the Yankees’ use of journeyman Robert Perez as an example. Perez, an outfielder who played 17 games with the Mariners in 1998, had started the Yankees’ last four games until Sunday.
“People who’ve got position players are holding onto them,” Gillick said. “There’s not many of them. Look at the Yankees. This is a World Championship club and they’re playing Robert Perez. If you’ve got one who can hit a little bit and play a little defense, you hold onto them. Throughout baseball there’s a lack of competent position players.”
There’s one in Texas in catcher Ivan Rodriguez, whose big salary could force the Rangers to shop him before he achieves no-trade status as a 10-and-five player (10 years in the majors, five with the same team) on June 2. Gillick is keeping a close eye on that situation, but he doubts the Mariners would make a huge push for Rodriguez.
“Pudge is a double-edged-sword deal. You’ve got to pay both ends on the guy,” Gillick said, meaning whoever get him would have to trade away a lot, then be responsible for Rodriguez’s $8.6 million salary this year and the unenviable task of trying to re-sign him after the 2002 season.
“From a budget standpoint, he doesn’t fit with us,” Gillick said.
But from a performance standpoint?
“Performance-wise, he’s a real good player,” Gillick said.
That’s the kind of player Tomko believes he will be if he finds a place, either Tacoma or another major league team, where he can work regularly as a starter.
“I believe in my heart that I’m a quality starter,” Tomko said. “This is a bump in the road that isn’t going to slow me down much. I’m not mad at anybody. I feel I’m a very good pitcher and a very good starter.
“Maybe not here, but somewhere.”
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