Are the 2001 Mariners a cautionary trade deadline tale for the 2024 Phillies? originally appeared in NBC Sports Philadelphia
The 2001 Seattle Mariners were a wrecking ball, a team that truly seemed to have it all. Scored the most runs. The fewest number of executions allowed. Eight All-Stars, four of them starters. He won an astonishing 116 games, more than half of them by at least four runs.
Ichiro, then a rookie, was named Most Valuable Player. Second baseman Bret Boone finished third and three other Mariners (future Hall of Fame DH Edgar Martinez, closer Kazuhiro Sasaki and center fielder Mike Cameron) received votes.
Which hasn’t stopped businessman Lou Piniella from agitating, privately and publicly, for more. Specifically, Sweet Lou thought he needed another left-handed bat to prepare his team for the postseason.
And it doesn’t matter that three of the regulars (right fielder Ichiro, first baseman John Olerud and left fielder Al Martin) batted from the left side, that shortstop Carlos Guillen and utilityman Mark McLemore were both hitters and that reserves Stan Javier and Tom Lampkin were also left-handed hitters.
Twenty-three years later, the echoes of that long-ago season echo faintly through the executive suites of Citizens Bank Park.
The Phillies currently have the best record in baseball. They also had eight players selected to the All-Star team and are considered the new favorites to win it all this fall.
Still, there is concern, at least among the fan base, that another right-handed bat is needed if the organization hopes to win its third World Series trophy in franchise history. And that’s where past and present come together in one of those connections that make baseball so fun.
Phillies senior advisor Pat Gillick, elected to the Hall of Fame in 2011, was their general manager when they last won it all in 2008. He was also the Seattle GM who answered Piniella’s pleas years ago.
“Like many managers, Lou always wanted to add to his education,” he recalled last weekend while in Cooperstown for the annual induction ceremonies. “He wanted to be in a position late in the game where he could go to the bench and get a right or left hitter off the bench. Or starting four lefties in a game against a right-handed starter. even more than that. He wanted as much versatility as possible.
One of the reasons Gillick has a plaque among the game’s immortals is because he was eternally vigilant to improve his club on the margins. So it’s not that he didn’t look for the piece of the puzzle his manager wanted. It’s just that it didn’t exist. At least not at a price he considered prudent.
Gillick isn’t the only common link between the two clubs either.
After defeating the Rangers on May 22, the Phillies’ record stood at 36–14. The last team to reach 50 wins so quickly was, you guessed it, the Mariners. But coach Rob Thomson wasn’t waving any pompoms when a reporter reminded him of that fact later.
“What they did?”
“They won 116 games.”
“But what did they do in the end?”
“They didn’t win the championship.”
“That’s right. Then you have to keep going. You have to keep trying until the end.”
Yes. About that…
The negotiation deadline went unnoticed at Camp Safeco that year. The Mariners eliminated the Indians in the ALDS, but batted .211 as a team against the Yankees in the ALCS, losing four of five.
It would be false to argue that acquiring a bat from the bench, no matter how productive it was, would have changed the outcome of that series. But the fact remains that Seattle remains the only Major League Baseball franchise to have never appeared in the World Series.
As counterintuitive as it may seem, one of the reasons for the lack of activity may have been that the team was simply too good. A club looking to reach the playoffs may be more inclined to take risks to try to earn a spot in the tournament. A team that is clearly already among the elite — like the Mariners then, like the Phillies now — may not feel the same sense of urgency to borrow for its future.
Think of it this way: If you’re traveling down the highway with plenty of gas and time to spare to get to your destination, you’re much less likely to stop and fill up the tank than if you’re running late and the gas light has been on for the last 20 miles.
“It’s a balancing act,” Gillick explained. “You have to play now because you have the opportunity to go to the playoffs and hopefully the World Series. But you have to compare that to the player you have to give up and where he fits in your program. the line. You need to have a short-term plan and a long-term plan.
Let the record show that if Thomson presented a wish list to president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski and general manager Sam Fuld, they all kept that information to themselves.
Plus, maybe Weston Wilson will show enough before 6pm next Tuesday to convince management that he’s as good as any right-handed bat they can acquire. Maybe Johan Rojas or Cristian Pache will start crying. Maybe Brandon Marsh will suddenly get the hang of hitting lefties.
Or maybe, as with the Mariners, the right fit simply doesn’t exist. In either of these scenarios, the Phillies could maintain the status quo in the outfield and apply those resources to getting, say, another bullpen arm.
Are the 2001 Mariners a cautionary tale for the 2024 Phillies? What makes the trade deadline so intriguing — and frustrating — is that no one will know until October.
