In Z we Trust?

By Blaidd Drwg

I have been thoroughly confused by the moves that his Holiness, Jack Z has made over the last few weeks – not as confused as I am with the moves that Wunderkind Theo Epstein has made, but that is for another post. Z’s moves over the last couple of years have really made me wonder if he is the guy we want running this team.

I was ready to write a nice post praising Z for the signing of Jack Cust and trading Jose Lopez. I really like Cust –  yes, he strikes out a ton and yes, he is a butcher in the OF (hey he is no worse than Raul Ibanez ever was), but the guy is a LH power bat who has posted decent numbers in Safeco over his career. More importantly, Cust has great plate discipline and walks a ton, a direction this team really needs to start heading in to be successful. Getting rid of Lopez is addition by subtraction – he can’t hit, he hasn’t met a pitch he didn’t like and he was generally not good defensively. The fact they got a warm body for him was an added bonus. My only question is – does signing Cust mean that Saunders is not going to get regular playing time in LF?

Then Z goes and makes some moves that just are mind blowing.

1) He signs Miguel Olivo for 2 (!) years. Olivo is basically Jose Lopez but a catcher – he swings at everything, hits for occasional power and really is not considered a good fielder. The Mariners moved him a few years ago when he was younger because he couldn’t hit and the pitchers hated throwing to him. I am pretty sure nothing has changed. And before you point out his decent production over the last few seasons – I would like to point out that 3 of those 5 seasons came in the NL, he posted an OPS+ greater than 100 only once and his walk totals in those 5 season were 9, 14, 7, 19 and 27 – every one of those seasons he racked up at least 360 plate appearances.

2) He trades for Brendan Ryan. Ryan is a spare part – a Josh Wilson kind of guy who can play 3 IF positions, none extraordinarily well, but well enough and can hit a little, but you are probably asking for trouble if you give him north of 300 plate appearances. I fundamentally have no problem with getting Ryan, they gave up a guy who probably will never make the majors for him; it is what they are planning to do with Ryan that makes no sense – make him a starter. How many Jack Wilson/Josh Wilson/Matt Tuisasosopo guys do you need on your roster – they are all interchangeable parts and carrying 3 or 4 of them will really limit your team – how does it benefit you if you have 3 guys who all can do the same thing with the same basic abilities.

3) Releasing Rob Johnson. I have no love for Johnson – he can’t handle the pitchers very well, he has trouble with keeping the ball in front of him (as evidenced by the 9 PB in 61 games last year), hasn’t shown that he can hit MLB pitching and really shouldn’t be a starter. He is 28 and probably primed for his best career season, is making close to league minimum and has shown that he can hit in the minors. You are telling me that you had to DFA him instead of finding someone that would be willing to take him for a warm body? They needed to clear a roster spot for Jack Cust, but I don’t understand dumping a catcher. Someone will end up signing him.

The Mariners are going to have to make another move when Olivo officially signs. I can only hope that they guy they get rid of is one of the Jack Wilson/Josh Wilson/Matt Tuisasosopo three headed monster.