Mariners
Sagging M's swallow their loss: Drop Jarvis, eat nearly $5 million

By Bob Finnigan
Seattle Times staff reporter

	MARK HARRISON / THE SEATTLE TIMES Pitcher Matt Thornton, throwing during spring training for the M's, makes the jump from Tacoma to the major leagues.
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BALTIMORE — In the first of what could be several moves to correct their awful April, the Mariners dumped pitcher Kevin Jarvis yesterday.

The move to cut the right-hander with an 8.31 earned-run average, as well as the promotion of left-hander Matt Thornton, came hours before last night's series opener against the Orioles was rained out. The game will be made up as a day-night doubleheader Aug. 3 at Camden Yards.

In reality, Jarvis, who came from San Diego as part of the deal for Jeff Cirillo, was axed Sunday. In fact, he was gone not long after the last of three straight homers hit off him by the Texas Rangers' 7-8-9 hitters blew up Seattle's comeback chances.

No sooner had Adrian Gonzalez's long ball hit the right-field seats than Mariners CEO Howard Lincoln was on the phone to general manager Bill Bavasi.

"I knew those guys would be calling me, at one point or another," said Lincoln, who is traveling with the team in the first of his four planned trips this season. "I felt I might as well save them the trouble."

If Lincoln hadn't called, Bavasi would have had to check in with him because of the large amount of money, $4.25 million plus $500,000 to buy out the club option for next season, the Mariners would have to eat to pay off Jarvis.

It is the largest payoff in club history, paying a player not to play what was the entire Mariners payroll less than 20 years ago.

"I knew we had to do something, and I didn't want to wait until Wednesday or Thursday," Lincoln said. "We can't have that kind of thing."

Thus ended suddenly what had been a gamble on the Mariners' part for a month, to hold Jarvis although it appeared he was not going to make the club in spring training. The front office imposed the decision on manager Bob Melvin.

"We wanted to try on two fronts to make something of the Jarvis situation," a Seattle club official said yesterday. "We wanted to see if we could get something out of him for ourselves, find a niche for a guy who had success in the past with the Padres. And along with that, find out if some other club would have interest in him."

The idea was to include the pitcher in a deal and have another team pick up a chunk of his salary.

Early, it appeared to be working out in favor of both the Mariners and the player, with Jarvis stringing together some good appearances. But it ultimately wound up costing Seattle dearly, something more precious than money — a chance to win games.

To be fair, with their starting pitchers failing to do the job in two games this past weekend, the club was behind. But Jarvis was unable to keep Texas from blowing up those games.

On Friday night, with the Mariners cutting a 7-2 deficit to 7-5 in the seventh, Jarvis relieved and gave up two sharp hits, runners who later scored on a bloop hit off Ron Villone in an eventual 10-8 loss.

On Sunday, with the Mariners cutting a 9-2 deficit to 9-6 in the sixth, Jarvis relieved and got lit up for the long balls.

	Kevin Jarvis

With Jarvis gone and word arriving that Rafael Soriano will make a minor-league rehab start, the M's likely will stay at 11 pitchers.

"We have Mondays as off days the next four weeks," Melvin said. "We should be all right for pitching."

The addition of Thornton, who was starting for Tacoma, also should help. As Melvin noted, "He was throwing 100 pitches a game, so we can use him in as long a role as needed."

The rainout also will help the bullpen get rest after being used up in Texas.

At this point, Thornton and Soriano will stay in relief and not go into the rotation to give anyone a break.

"I'm still looking at years gone by with our starters," pitching coach Bryan Price said. "I expect them to come around and pitch deep into games as their history shows they will do."

The club apparently is being careful with Soriano, even though he threw six strong innings for San Antonio on Sunday night, allowing only three hits and one run, with no walks and eight strikeouts, and hitting 92 to 94 mph.

Unless there is a change of plan, Soriano will have one more rehab start before being activated for the upcoming homestand, which begins May 4 against Minnesota.

Bob Finnigan: 206-464-8276 or bfinnigan@seattletimes.com

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