News and notes from Mariners pre-spring training conference

The Mariners held their annual pre-spring training lunch and press conference Thursday at Safeco Field. For over an hour and a half, various members of the organization took questions from media and a number of topics of interest. Here are some of the topics covered:

Jesus Montero

Montero spent his offseason in Peoria working out at the Mariners spring training facility every day. According to head trainer Rick Griffin he is down to his reporting weight of 235 pounds.

“He stubbed his toe, his second and third toe,” said Jack Zduriencik on the commitment the organization has made to Montero. “Bottom line is he is still a part of this organization. We’ve got a lot invested in him and we certainly want him to be successful. He is going to be given that opportunity.”

It has been hinted many times that there have been more than weight issues with Montero. Zdureincik has been committed to getting him on track.

“One of the things that really, really was a goal of ours in September when we brought him up here face-to-face with him and his wife was, ‘Jesus, first and foremost we need to save you as a human being,'” Zduriencik said. “‘We need to make you a functional person in terms of some of these decisions and some of these directions you are misguided on.’ I think we set him on a program that he embraced. Now what happens we are going to find out, but I have never given up on him.”

Lloyd McClendon checked in with Montero in an in-person meeting in Arizona last fall. He is pleased with the latest reports on him.

“I think in the short-term he’s accomplished things I set out for him to do,” McClendon said. “We had a real good conversation about two months ago and he has exceeded those expectations, and when I talk about the expectations, they have nothing to do with the game of baseball, they have everything to do with the game of life. Now he can concentrate on being a better baseball player. We’ll see what happens this spring.”

Expectations coming off 87 wins

“We think our club is a good club. We think we have a chance to be really competitive,” Zduriencik said. “There’s nice pieces here. I think on paper, hey, this has a chance to be a lot of fun, but you have to execute, you have got to perform, and you have got to stay healthy. I think any GM would say it’s about performance, preparation and health. If every club in baseball does that, let’s see what happens. The game’s played on the field between the white lines.”

For McClendon, expectations are not his concern. He believes his focus and the focus of his team should be on the preparation.

“I will send them the same message as I sent them last year,” he said. “If we get concerned about expectations we aren’t focused. Our concern should be preparation and getting ready for the start of the season. Getting ready for the journey. Expectations are a nice conversation piece for the media but I don’t have concern for that.”

Expectations aside, McClendon likes what he sees.

“All in all I think we are a much improved club,” he said. “I will caution everybody, you talk about expectations, we don’t start from 87, we start from zero. That’s why it is so important we talk about preparation and getting ready for the start of the season. My mind right now is on (Angels starter Jered) Weaver Opening Day.”

Spring-training competition in the rotation

McClendon said that there will be one open spot in the rotation and that J.A. Happ is not a contender for it. He already has a spot.

“He’s a legit 2, 3, 4 starter in anybody’s rotation,” he said. “He pitched in two small ballparks. I think coming here to Seattle is going to help him immensely. Being around guys like Felix, Iwakuma will also help. I’m extremely happy to have him. We didn’t acquire Happ to put in the bullpen, we can put that to rest. He will be in our rotation.”

“We have candidates for one spot in my mind,” he continued. Competition is a good thing. You hope at the end of the day in spring training that you have real tough decisions to make. We will see.”

Shortstop

“We have two young men who performed very well in spurts,” McClendon said of Brad Miller and Chris Taylor. “They will be given the opportunity to battle it out in spring training and see how it works out.”

While pointing out that the two have different strengths – Miller has more offensive potential, Taylor gets the edge defensively – it would appear the two are on equal footing at this point.

“Both are capable of making the routine play,” he said. “It looks a little easier for one than the other but that doesn’t mean he’s better in that sense. You have to figure what your strengths are, what fits best as far as that shortstop position is concerned, and that’s what spring training is for. We will figure it out. I think the sum of the parts equals up to a pretty good conversation. We will see how it works out.”

McClendon also said that no specific conversations of moving Miller to the outfield took place.

Outfield questions

We could still see roster additions.

“We are working on some things that could bring us a veteran player or two that could also fit into that and let them compete for a job as well,” Zduriencik said when asked about depth behind those projected to make the 25-man roster. “We also have Lomo (Logan Morrison), who could go to the outfield should something happen. I think overall we are in pretty good shape there. We’re going to bring some kids in like (Patrick) Kivlehan in spring training. We will get the chance to watch him. DJ (Peterson), we will get the chance to watch him. We have depth there. We just need to let it come into play in spring training and see what happens.”

McClendon believes we will see a bounce back from Austin Jackson.

“I suspect this young man will be pretty good for us,” he said. “Offensively he is doing some things mechanically we need to clean up, shore up a little bit. It’s nothing major. We will work on that in spring training. Defensively he makes us better. He goes and gets the ball with the best of them. I think when you are happy, physically sound and where you want to be you should play better and I suspect he will.”

Jackson also most likely will be in a familiar part of the lineup.

“As we speak right now, Austin Jackson will probably lead off for the Seattle Mariners,” McClendon said.

Notes and quotes

• In addition to the press conference, McClendon joined 710 ESPN Seattle’s “Danny, Dave and Moore” in studio for an interview Thursday.

• Danny Hultzen is healthy and expected to be a full go in spring training. That aid, the Mariners will be very careful with him.

“The realistic part is he missed an entire year so there’s going to be time where he just has to pitch in the minor leagues,” said Zduriencik. “That’s just the way it is. To bring him into spring training and say ‘Danny, you have a chance to make this club,’ I think that would be foolish. But he’s got to build himself up, and if he continues along, as he rolls into spring training, we think he will be in good shape moving forward.”

• McClendon has a plan to get Dustin Ackley over his slow starts.

“My plan is to play the hell out of him in spring training and get all the slow start stuff out of the way,” he said. “I’m going to wear him out. And he knows that too. We’ll see what happens. Either he will get tired or I will get tired.”

• Here’s the list of spring training non-roster invitees: Pitchers – Sam Gaviglio, Justin Germano, Stephen Landazuri, Tyler Olson, Jordan Pries, Forrest Snow, Mark Lowe; Catchers – Steven Baron, Mike Dowd, Tyler Marlette; Infielders – Shawn O’Malley (signed Wednesday), DJ Peterson, Carlos Rivero; Outfielders – Patrick Kivlehan, Jordy Lara.

• Roenis Elias has had no further problems with the elbow tendinitis that forced him to be shut down last September. He threw for the team in Arizona last fall, completed his winter throwing program and recently has resumed throwing in preparation for spring training.

• Zduriencik added Stefen Romero and Ji-Man Choi to the list of players who could play first base if needed. Choi has added a twist having recently taken up switch-hitting.

“Kids, you just never know what they will do,” minor league director Chris Gwynn said with a laugh. “He’s taking batting practice in winter ball and decides the slider probably looks a little different from a lefty on the other side of the plate. Let me see what I can do. I just think it is pretty funny. We’ll see, because at some point if it is not going anywhere we will tell him to get back to the other side. But we’ll see.”

– Interestingly enough, the Mariners have only three players from outside the organization on their list of non-roster invitees. This is a very low number for the Mariners to have and, according to assistant GM Jeff Kingston, this in a way is a good thing.

“Part of that is trying to sell veteran non-roster guys on the opportunity here,” he said. “The biggest feather you have in your cap when you are negotiating and trying to bring in non-roster guys is selling the opportunity, and trying to sell relief pitchers on the opportunity in our bullpen is pretty darn hard to do right now, not to mention starting pitching and even the position players.”

There are still names out there that could be of help according to Zduriencik. If they are willing to take a minor-league deal we could see them added.

One name that it seems less likely we will see added is Joe Beimel. Zduriencik said that there have been discussions but that there have been discussions with many others as well.

• Count McClendon as someone who is still smarting from the Felix snub for the Cy Young Award.

“I probably need to clean it up a little bit,” he said when asked what his thoughts were on Felix not winning the award. “I wasn’t happy. Corey Kluber was very deserving, he had a tremendous year, but if you think about what Felix accomplished, 17 starts with 7-plus innings of two runs or less? And for someone to sit on TV and say, ‘Well he had a bad start in Toronto’? If that cost him the Cy Young, then shame on the people who voted.”

• McClendon would not commit to how many we will see in the pen on Opening Day. Will it be seven or eight?

“I’m not quite sure if I want to share it right now,” he said. “We have a lot of talented individuals in that bullpen. Competition is a great thing and we can’t take everyone.”

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