One Year Later

Larry Stone of the Seattle Times looks back at the 5-for-1 deal between the Mariners and Orioles after one year. Your know the one...

It was in early December 2007 that rumors of the Mariners' interest in Erik Bedard first started to percolate.

It was in late January 2008 that Seattle general manager Bill Bavasi, buoyed by the progress of talks with his Baltimore counterpart, Andy MacPhail, told reporters of his confidence that the M's would soon add a front-line pitcher.

It was three days later that outfielder Adam Jones was pulled from a winter-league game in Venezuela and told reporter Augusto Cardenas of the newspaper Diario Panorama that he had been traded to the Orioles for Bedard.

And it was 11 excruciating, confusing days later — one year ago today — that the Bedard deal was finally consummated, to a mixed chorus of cheers and catcalls.

The pros and cons:

"I really thought he was the missing ingredient to be an outstanding staff," Mel Stottlemyre, the Mariners' pitching coach last year, says now. "I was so excited about the pitching staff."

To detractors, however, the Mariners had paid too vast a price for even a pitcher with Bedard's undeniable track record and potential. Besides Jones, a former No. 1 draft pick and the top position prospect in Seattle's farm system, they gave up reliever George Sherrill and three minor-league pitchers, Chris Tillman, Kam Mickolio and Tony Butler.

Sherrill became an All-Star closer for the Orioles, who still believe Jones can develop into an All-Star-caliber outfielder. Mickolio finished the season in the big leagues, while Tillman is now rated as one of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball.

Bedard, beset by injuries, pitched in just 15 games, none after July 4, when he was shut down for good because of shoulder pain. He underwent arthroscopic shoulder surgery on Sept. 26 to remove a cyst and unhealthy tissue.

But MacPhail, the Orioles' GM, warns not to make a final judgment on the outcome of the deal quite yet.

"It worked out fine for us," he said by phone from Baltimore. "I would remind Mariners fans those trades can go through multiple lifetimes. If Erik wins 17 games this year, which he's easily capable of doing, it might look a lot different than it does now."

Stone talks with someone who sees things differently than MacPhail:

Dave Cameron of the popular Web site USS Mariner, however, highly doubts that his negative viewpoint will change.

Cameron was relentless in his criticism of the trade from the moment it became clear how much the Mariners were giving up for a pitcher he admittedly admires.

"Short of a championship parade, the trade was always going to be a debacle," he said.

There is a lot more over there including this:

Stottlemyre also admits that the Mariners probably erred in naming Bedard the opening-day starter so quickly. An unnamed coach told the Tacoma News Tribune after McLaren's firing that the decision caused consternation in the clubhouse.

"You had guys watch Felix [Hernandez] work his [butt] off in camp and watched Bedard do the minimum — and Bedard was the opening-day starter," the coach said.

Says Stottlemyre now: "To answer bluntly, yes. I think it's a mistake any time a manager or pitching coach names his starting pitcher so early in spring, especially when you have several people, like we did, who were capable of being No. 1.

"In retrospect, it was a mistake. I'm not slapping Mac, who I think the world of. We — myself included — made the decision to announce that way too early."