Mariner Carlos Silva reports to camp 30 pounds lighter

PEORIA, Ariz. — Only one thing was radically different for Carlos Silva this winter, besides the dropping number on his bathroom scale.

He still ate mostly the same foods, albeit in much smaller portions. And the exercise routine he engaged in was also similar, though it gradually became much easier to do as his body began changing for the better.

About the only thing that felt totally unfamiliar to Silva was several months back when his team first ordered him to drag his 285-pound frame through a series of grueling yoga exercises three times per week. Even now, about 30 fewer pounds later, those private, hourlong sessions still cause Silva to break into a cold sweat.

"I can't do that," Silva said with a smile, something he didn't show often down the stretch of a 4-15 first season with the Mariners, in which he posted a 6.46 earned-run average. "My wife, she does it easy. But for me ... it's [hard]."

But the Mariners didn't mind making the 30-year-old sweat a little. After all, he's still owed more in millions ($36 million to be exact) than he says he's knocked off in pounds this offseason.

The four-year, $48 million deal given Silva about 14 months ago remains one of the most criticized of any move by the previous regime of general manager Bill Bavasi. Silva jumped out to a quick start, going 3-0 with a 2.79 ERA in April, then managed a lone victory the rest of the way.

Though some of Silva's misfortune was due to poor fielding behind him, his weight came under increased scrutiny as the season wore on. By the time it was done, Silva, often the target of fan scorn, was ready to try anything.

"I knew as soon as they signed me here that they had very big expectations," said Silva, who arrived with the rest of the team's pitchers and catchers at the Peoria Sports Complex on Friday to take a physical ahead of today's scheduled on-field workout. "I didn't cover those expectations at all. But as soon as the season ended, I went back home and the only thing I had on my mind is what I've got to do."

What the Mariners made him do was stop eating so much and get himself into the yoga class. They wanted to see more flexibility and core strength out of a pitcher whose back could barely make it through last season's second half.

"I feel great," Silva said of his increased strength and flexibility. "It's easier to work out because I'm not as heavy as before."

And now, the team hopes Silva is poised for a rebound on the mound.

"He looks like somebody cut him in half," Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu exclaimed. "He's in good shape. He looks great."

And Wakamatsu expects better results.

"I think it eliminates excuses," he said. "No. 1, everybody pointed to him being out of shape."

Silva spent most of the past month or two in his native Venezuela, staging his annual Christmas fundraiser for children there and launching the South American version of a charitable foundation he runs in the United States. The foundation will raise money and provide equipment for needy children, whom Silva had already been helping through gestures like a Little League he started up last year in his hometown of Puerto Ordac.

But Silva's in need of a little help as well.

More advanced pitching metrics seem to suggest that his fielders were largely to blame for his bloated ERA in 2008.

The Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) stat showed him at 4.63 compared to the 6.46 ERA. While an ERA of 4.63 is still not what the Mariners wanted for $12 million per season, it would have been far preferable to the Jeff Weaver-like number Silva finished with.

Silva also stranded fewer runners last year than he had in previous seasons with better defenders behind him.

That seems to suggest that with better defense — something Wakamatsu and new general manager Jack Zduriencik have made paramount to their overall strategy — Silva's numbers are poised for a rebound even if he stays the same. But Silva feels he has to make big mound improvements, something that, if successful, could cut him slack with a skeptical fan base.

"They don't know anything about me," he said of the fans, many of whom tagged him as a chief culprit of last year's 101-loss squad. "I didn't show much. Right now, physically I feel really good and now I've got to start building my arm and getting ready for the season."

And if Silva can do that as well as he hopes, it will remove lots of weight from the shoulders of a franchise still feeling a ton of buyer's remorse.

Geoff Baker: 206-464-8286 or gbaker@seattletimes.com