Tuiasosopo off to hot start with Mariners

PEORIA, Ariz. — Even if this baseball thing had never worked out, Matt Tuiasosopo says he wouldn't have had any second thoughts.

"I haven't even thrown a football since I've been out of high school," says Tuiasosopo, whose name is synonymous with that sport in Seattle. "I don't even think about that. I'm totally happy with where I am."

And, increasingly, it looks like maybe baseball will work out just fine for Tuiasosopo, who signed to play quarterback at Washington in 2004 before deciding to sign with the Mariners.

Tuiasosopo is one of the hottest hitters for the Mariners through the first few days of training camp. He is 6 for 11 in the first five games with a team-high 11 total bases, including one homer, and four runs scored.

And slimmed down to 227 pounds from 240 a year ago, he's also shown increasing range at third base.

"What impresses me is that he keeps getting better," said Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu. "I saw him at the end of last year a little bit and thought that his defense wasn't strong. But he's lost a little bit of weight and he's moving better, playing aggressive, and running pretty good. He is getting better every day."

Wakamatsu saw Tuiasosopo during his brief taste of the major leagues last September when he hit .159 in 14 games, a call-up earned after a hot July and August at Class AAA Tacoma.

Tuiasosopo is fighting to stay on the major-league roster, hoping to gain a spot as a backup infielder, though it may be more likely he ends up back in Tacoma to start the season. But with Adrian Beltre in his free-agent year, Tuiasosopo is trying to show he could be the team's third baseman of the future.

"Especially with the new staff, I just want to make a good first impression on what I can do and show that I'm getting ready," he said.

His manager a year ago at Tacoma, Darren Brown, is quick to point out Tuiasosopo is just 22 — he turns 23 in May — though he seems to have been around forever.

"I thought more than anything last year he was a young hitter kind of finding himself a bit," Brown said.

The road hasn't exactly been smooth since Tuiasosopo was chosen in the third round of the June draft in 2004 as Seattle's first pick out of Woodinville High School and signed to a club-record $2.3 million signing bonus.

His decision crushed UW football fans, who hoped he'd be the team's QB of the future and follow in the footsteps of his older brother Marques. Matt Tuiasosopo would have been a fifth-year senior last season.

He signed with UW in February 2004, turning down offers from UCLA and USC (where the point man on his recruitment was a young Trojans assistant named Steve Sarkisian).

But Tuiasosopo said he decided the day of Woodinville's first practice that spring, a few weeks later, that he wanted to play baseball.

"I just think baseball has always kind of been my sport," he said, noting he didn't play football until the eighth grade.

A few stumbles up the minor-league chain — namely, hitting for less power than expected from a third baseman — led to the inevitable rumblings that he might someday return to football.

But the power switch seems to have been turned, and Tuiasosopo hit a career-high 13 homers in 437 at-bats in Tacoma last year. He has shown more signs of it this spring, and though it's early, if his improvement continues, those questioning his career choice may be silenced.

Not that Tuiasosopo has ever joined that chorus. He occasionally gets asked about it even now, but says that bridge was crossed the day he signed with the Mariners.

"It's been kind of tough watching them [the Huskies] the last 3-4 years," he said. "I still pull for them and follow the guys that are there. But I've never thought about it [going back to UW] again."

Bob Condotta: 206-515-5699 or bcondotta@seattletimes.com