Phillippe Aumont’s return to Arizona and the Seattle Mariners was without fanfare, hype or celebration. It included a bag of Chick-Fil-A for breakfast and the long walk around the building to the minor league clubhouse of the Mariners' spring training facility.
In fact, there was little mention of his return. If not for the random glance in the parking lot by a media member, Aumont would have returned rather inconspicuously ... well as inconspicuous as a 6-foot-7 guy can be.
And while he was now far removed from the Canadian team and the glitz and hype of the WBC, the experience and his memorable one inning of a work is something he won’t soon forget.
“It’s a lifetime experience,” he said. “It’s a career highlight for me right now. Hopefully I’ll get a chance somewhere to do something special like that. It’s the best inning of my life.”
Minor League Camp. But, still...
For now, it’s back to the minor league life and minor league camp, which didn’t seem to thrilling to Aumont after spending last season in major league camp.
“I don’t have any control over that,” he said. “There’s people up there who have some reasons. I wasn’t really happy about it, but we’ll go through camp and we’ll start the season. I’ll do the best I can and stay healthy.” But Aumont understands there is certain reasoning behind it. He just hasn’t heard it.
“They didn’t really tell me,” he said. “But I got hurt last year and once you’re in big-league camp, you’re not there to play around. You’re there to perform. I guess they wanted to take it easy on my arm and in minor league camp I can step back a little bit.”
That’s sort of the reasoning according to GM Jack Zduriencik said.
“He’s a guy that pitched in A ball last year and is going to pitch in A ball this year,” Zduriencik said. The plan is still to bring him over for some cactus league games according to Zduriencisk and manager Don Wakamatsu. But the goal is to keep him healthy and get him ready for the season.
No word on if it is Clinton, Iowa A-Ball or High Desert Mavericks A-Ball.
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