Jack Zduriencik reflects on his tenure with the Mariners, wishes the club well after his firing

CHICAGO – Jack Zduriencik has been in baseball long enough to not be surprised by anything. So when he answered the door at the team hotel to see Mariners president Kevin Mather there Friday morning, he knew what that meant. His days as general manager of the Mariners were over.

“You have to be realistic about everything and look at them as they are,” Zduriencik told a small group of reporters after the team announced his firing. “Things happen and there are consequences to be paid. When you take a job you are accountable. At the end of the day if it doesn’t work, there’s no excuses. It didn’t work. You are the guy as the GM who is responsible for the fate of the club no matter what. It just didn’t work out the way we hoped it would. We put our heart and soul in it; it didn’t work.”

M’s president Kevin Mather on the decision to fire Zduriencik and what’s next

The 2015 season has been a disappointment for all involved. The Mariners had augmented their young core with high-priced free agents to make a run. It was time. After seven years of development under Zduriencik, the playoffs – or at least contending for the postseason – was the expectation. It didn’t happen. For any number of reasons, according to Zduriencik.

“You always reflect. Hindsight is 20/20,” he said. “There’s no mistakes by looking back saying could have, should have, would have. What happened happened. I don’t know that I don’t have a key to unlock it to say this should have worked. A lot of it, you have to be fortunate, in some cases lucky. There’s other cases where you are depending on things to happen and it didn’t happen, so I don’t know that there’s one answer to that.”

Zdurienick leaves while his staff, for now, remains. It’s a staff he built and hopes the best for.

“There are a lot of good people,” he said. “(Scouting director) Tom McNamara has busted his tail. Every single guy has worked really hard, they have been very loyal and dedicated.”

As for his skipper, team president Kevin Mather pointed out that Lloyd McClendon is signed through next year but he also told McClendon that ultimately he will work for the new general manager. Zduriencik hopes that new GM sees in McClendon what he did.

“I am a huge fan of Lloyd McClendon,” Zduriencik said. “I love him as a human being and as a manager.”

Zduriencik will now head home to Pittsburgh to spend time with his family. As he leaves, he wished the Mariners well.

“It’s a great organization, great people,” he said. “I really, really enjoyed my seven years here. There’s not a thing I could say in a negative vibe (about) a thing that went on in Seattle. There’s a lot of great things going on here and this organization deserves a winner and it will happen. It will happen very soon.”

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