Former MLB GM doubts Mariners will move Erik Bedard

Mariners pitcher Erik Bedard was placed on the 15-day disabled list last month with a sprained left knee. (AP)

By Brady Henderson

As a former member of the Orioles’ front office, Jim Duquette has seen first-hand the same thing that has both delighted and disappointed Mariners fans for the past four seasons.

In 2007, Duquette’s second season as Baltimore’s VP of Baseball Operations, Erik Bedard
went 13-5 with a 3.16 ERA and led the league with 10.9 strikeouts per nine innings (221 Ks in 182 IP). That season, though, was cut short after Bedard strained an oblique and was shut down in early September.

Bedard’s tenure in Seattle since his trade to the Mariners before the 2008 season has come with similar results; he’s been great when healthy, but most of the time, he hasn’t been healthy. Last month, Bedard and his 3.00 ERA went on the 15-day disabled list with a sprained knee, putting on hold his impressive comeback from a 2010 season in which he didn’t pitch due to shoulder injuries.

It’s those injury concerns that lead Duquette to believe the Mariners can’t get enough value for the left-hander to make trading him worth while.

“From the standpoint of the injuries that he’s had, no team can really give up what he’s worth,” Duquette told Bob Stelton and Mike Salk on Tuesday. “He’s probably worth more to Seattle, to the Mariners, than he is anywhere else. There’d be plenty of teams that would take him as a fourth or fifth guy. You’d have to look at him as a fourth or fifth guy because he’s a gamble because of the injuries, but he’s worth more than that.

“So in the end, I’d be surprised if Jack [Zduriencik] ends up moving him.”

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