Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik had a conference call with reporters within the past hour. Here’s the Q and A, including some artful avoidance on Zduriencik’s part when it came to other teams’ interest in Felix Hernandez:
Opening remarks:
Our thought process was that it gives us an opportunity to acquire two left-handed pitchers, both starters _ one highly touted in the Detroit system and certainly a big-league-ready pitcher.
As difficult as it is to part with Jarrod Washburn _ it was very difficult, a very tough phone call this morning. He and I have had several conversations over a period of time.
I told Dave Dombrowski (Tigers GM), ‘You may not have gotten the best pitcher in the American League, but you certainly got a guy who’s to throwing as good as anybody in the American League.’
At the end of the day, my job is to sit back and evaluate the organization as we move forward, not only what is good for the short term but the long term. To acquire some talent as we move forward was an important thing.
We are on the outside looking in at the pennant race and certainly have a way to go to get back in this thing. But this week we can look at Jack Wilson, Ian Snell and Luke French. We have brought back three pieces who go into our major league club. Next Tuesday well have (Adrian) Beltre back and hopefully not long after that we’ll have Erik Bedard back. We’ll see where that takes us.
Q. Was there any negotiation with Wasnburn about an extension?
A. We did not. We had some discussion about possibility of something materializing beyond this year. But I didn’t broach that with his agent. We’ll see as we move forward.
Q.Why?
IA. just think, at least at our end, we wanted to keep our options open. As much as we respected what he did this year, I thought it was in the best interest to let these pieces fall together and make a decision on this particular day as to what direction we head.
Q.Is this a better team now than it was a week ago?
A.I still think there are some moving parts to our ballcub. Health is a major issue and we’ve had our share of injuries this year _ Beltre, Bedard. Even when we had Brandon Morrow here, he had his issues when he couldn’t go to the mound.
Are we a better club now? I think we added pieces to this ballclub.
Q. Why not address the offensive problems?
A. It’s a little difficult to answer that question. We made some moves that have been positive moves. You go back to us bringing Langerhans in here. We brought in Hannahan, who’s done a very nice job. We recently brought up Michael Saunders because we thought Michael was our best option in left field.
One thing when you talk about trying to go get somebody, it takes two parties to be able to do that. When you do that, you really have to give something up. Sometimes you might be able to go get a bat but you have to give up other pieces to your ballclub.
We know what we are as a ballclub. You have to weigh the whole thing and keep the big picture in mind, not only for the short term but for the long term.
Q.To what extent did the Tigers make a better offer than the Yankees?
A. At the end of the day, this is the move we thought made the most sense.
Q. What impressed you about Robles?
A. Our scouts had seen him throw. He has a very nice arm and he’s a very aggressive kid. He’s going to join High Desert club. He’s 20 years old playing in high-A ball. We see an upside with this young kid.
Q. How close is Robles to the big leagues?
A. He’s a few years away. It would be nice to see him finish the year in Double-A, but we’re not going to push this kid. We’ll let it unfold. What we want to do is put them in our (minor league pitching instructors’) hands. Each player has his own timeframe. How quick is he to the big leagues? It’s hard to say.
Q. How many offers were there on Felix Hernandez?
A. I wouldn’t address numbers or teams. But at end of day doesn’t mean there was anything real serious. To move Felix Hernandez would have to be something enormous. People inquired about many players on our ballcub. Some of those were just conversations.
Q. So, was there an actual offer for Felix?
A. There were inquiries on a lot of our players. That’s all I’ll say on that.
Q. Did seeing French pitch against you last week show you anything you didn’t already know about him?
A. “It’s good to see guys in person. You’re talking about a kid who’s got some pitchability. You look at his history as a guy who’ll continue to improve. He had a good start against us. We look at this as a chance to have a player under our control the next six years. He’s 6-4 and a left-hander who has some major league experience.
To move Jarrod, we wanted to get a nice piece in the minor leagues, which we acquired, and get a degree of big-league experience, which was important as well. That became intriguing as we talked through some of these names.
Q. Did you have to debate other strong offers?
A. Without getting into specifics, at the end of the day we made the best deal that we thought we had on the table.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
