What Could Have Been For The Mariners

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With roughly 40 games left in the 2015 Major League Baseball season, the Seattle Mariners find themselves in an all too familiar situation. The Mariners have a record of 56-65 which is good for fourth place in the American League West as they are 9.5 games behind the first place Houston Astros in the division and they are 7 games behind the Los Angeles Angels for the AL’s final wild card spot. The M’s are well on their way to their fifth losing campaign in the past six years as they’ve failed to live up to the expectations that were thrust upon them when this MLB season began. And to make matters worse, the Mariners have to now sit back and watch a pair of their former prospects flourish on the East Coast.

Outfielder Adam Jones and starting pitcher Michael Pineda took different routes in their baseball lives. Jones was the 37th overall pick of the 2003 MLB Draft by the Mariners while Pineda was signed by Seattle in 2005 out of his native Dominican Republic.

Adam Jones

After three years in the minors, Jones made his debut with the M’s in 2006. And in that season with the Mariners, Jones hit a home run while driving in eight runs as he appeared in 32 games. Jones showed flashes in Seattle, but after going 88-74 in 2007, former Mariners general manager Bill Bavasi felt like he needed to make a move in order to get the team over the hump. In 2008, Jones was a part of a trade that saw the Mariners send five players to the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for starting pitcher Erik Bedard.

The Orioles were in the midst of rebuilding and thus they had no problem in allowing Jones to develop while the M’s felt that they were ready to contend for a playoff berth. The Mariners thought that they were getting a frontline starter in Bedard as he finished third in the American League in strikeouts for 2007 with 221 as a member of the Orioles, but he was far from dominant in the Pacific Northwest.

Erik Bedard

Shoulder issues limited Bedard to just 46 starts over three-plus seasons in Seattle. And Bedard would go on to miss the entire 2010 Major League Baseball season as he recovered from shoulder surgery. The Mariners finally gave up on Bedard in 2011 when they traded him to the Boston Red Sox. Aside from Bedard’s time with the Red Sox, he would spend time with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Houston Astros, and Tampa Bay Rays. And after failing to make the Los Angeles Dodgers team this year out of spring training, Bedard decided to retire. For Bedard, once he was traded to the Mariners, he never had another year in which he finished with a winning record.

Jones on the other hand has morphed into one of the best five-tool players in MLB. Jones is a five-time AL All-Star, four-time Gold Glove winner and he has become the face of the Orioles franchise. For his career, Jones has averaged a .280 batting average to go along with 25 home runs and 85 runs batted in. Jones has helped the Orioles make the postseason in two of the last three years and this week he is giving the Mariners another glimpse of what they gave up on.

The O’s were in Seattle to take on the Mariners last week and in that series, Jones went yard twice. And while the postseason appears to be an aberration for the Mariners at this point in 2015, the O’s find themselves in the midst of another playoff push as they are just a 1/2 game behind the Angels for the final wild card spot in the American League.

Michael Pineda

For Pineda, he made his Major League Baseball debut with the Mariners in 2011 as he compiled a record of 9-10 with a 3.74 earned run average. Pineda also struck out 173 batters in 2011 as he earned an All-Star Game appearance. In 2012, Pineda was a part of a deal that saw the Mariners and New York Yankees exchange top prospects. In exchange for Pineda, the Yankees would send catcher Jesus Montero to Seattle.

In parts of four years with the M’s, Montero is batting .254 with 21 home runs and 82 runs batted in which is a far cry from a player that the Yankees and the New York media were hyping up as the next big thing that would wear pinstripes. Shoulder issues would see Pineda miss the 2012 and 2013 Major League Baseball seasons, but he would start 13 games in 2014 as he compiled a record of 5-5 with a 1.89 earned run average. This season Pineda has a record of 9-7 with a 3.97 earned run average and he’s shown flashes of becoming a future ace in the Yankees starting rotation. On May 10, in a Yankees 6-2 victory over the Orioles, Pineda struck out 16 batters as his fastball can be tough for batters to catch up with at times. The flipside on Pineda is that he cannot stay healthy as he is currently on the disabled list with a forearm strain, but he is more than worth the risk for the Yankees.

All season long the Mariners have been searching for depth in their starting rotation behind starting pitcher Felix Hernandez who has been his typical “King Felix” self which is a void that Pineda could have filled if he were still in Seattle. Last year Mariners general manager Jack Zdurienceck went out and gave second baseman Robinson Cano $240 million over 10 years to leave the Yankees and sign with the M’s. And in 2015, Cano is in the midst of his worst statistical season at the plate as he is batting just .272 with 13 homers and 54 runs batted in. Mariners designated hitter Nelson Cruz is on pace for the best season of his 11-year Major League Baseball career-as he is batting .320 with 36 homers, 75 runs batted in, and an on-base percentage of .387 as the combination of Cruz, Jones , and Cano would more than likely have the Mariners currently in playoff contention.

But all of that is currently for the Mariners and their fan base is a pipe dream as they have one of the worst teams in baseball this year. In Baltimore, Jones has established himself has established as one of the best five-tool players in MLB while he has also became a leader in the Orioles clubhouse and the face of their franchise. And for Pineda, he still hasn’t figured out how good that he can truly be on the mound, but when he does, look out as we’ll never know how good that he and Jones could have been for the Mariners.

Source: Baseball-reference.com

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