SEATTLE — Rick Adair has seen pitchers become distracted by uncertain contract situations, but also become complacent by the security of big-money long-term deals.
“It can have a positive and a negative effect,” Adair, the Seattle Mariners’ pitching coach, said Thursday. “What’s important is how you handle it and the kind of character you have.”
To that, Adair has no worries about Felix Hernandez, the 23-year-old ace of his staff who signed a five-year, $78 million contract Thursday that will keep him with the Mariners through 2014.
Hernandez told reporters at Safeco Field that big contract or not, he won’t be distracted from helping lead a team he believes can reach the postseason this year.
“I just want to be here. I just want to win,” Hernandez said.
“I believe him,” said Adair, who became more impressed with Hernandez as both a pitcher and a person as last season went along. “I remember times last year when he was going real well after mid-May but you just didn’t know, with the innings he was piling up, how it was going to affect him. There was a period of time last year when we thought we might need to give him a break. But he fought through it and did some things in the last month and a half that you don’t often see from young pitchers.”
For example …
“Felix extended himself by close to 40 innings last year over what he pitched the year before,” Adair said. “You really don’t know what kind of effect that’s going to have on a guy, especially a guy at 23. You’re cautious with every outing. But Felix responded. He stayed with his routine between starts and he didn’t back off any side work. There were times in the sixth and seventh innings when he’d be in a situation with his back against the wall and he’d make a great pitch. It was impressive.
“I was looking at some names of guys he’s been compared to at the same age. Dwight Gooden is one that’s mentioned a lot. To be around a talent like that, it’s an honor, really.”
Hernandez’s contract is the second-richest in franchise history behind the five-year, $90 million deal Ichiro Suzuki signed before the 2009 season. Hernandez gets a $3.5 million signing bonus and will make $6.5 million this year, $10 million in 2011, $18.5 million in 2012, $19.5 million in 2013 and $20 million in 2014.
When he’s eligible for free agency after the 2014 season, Hernandez will be just 28. Provided he remains as effective and healthy as he was last year, when he went 19-8 with a 2.49 earned run average and finished second in the American League Cy Young Award voting, Hernandez’s next contract could be massive compared with this one.
But then, if it was more about money than a desire to remain in Seattle, he and the team might still be talking.
Hernandez said repeatedly Thursday that his main objective was to remain with a Mariners team that could reach the playoffs in 2010 and play in a ballpark and city that are special to him. He said he never considered waiting until he could be a free agent in 2012 to reach the open market.
“Last year at the last game, everybody was asking, ‘Are you going to stay in Seattle?’” Hernandez said. “I said, ‘Yes.’ I love to play here. I love the fans. It’s outstanding to be here.”
General manager Jack Zduriencik received calls last year from other teams as Hernandez’s potential free agency after the 2011 season approached. Zduriencik admitted he listened to those teams, but he badly wanted to keep a pitcher who could be the biggest factor in the success of the team.
“When people would call, certainly you would listen,” Zduriencik said. “But we need this guy at the top of our rotation. Our goal and my goal personally was to keep this guy until he can’t be here any longer.”
Read Kirby Arnold’s blog on the Mariners at www.heraldnet.com/marinersblog
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