Disappointment #2

Kanekoa Texeira (Getty images)

I was disappointed when the Mariners fired Alan Cockrell, mostly because they made it clear they did it just because someone had to be the scapegoat. The organization seemed beyond such traditional, purely cosmetic moves.

I am disappointed again. The Mariners announced a pair of moves after last night's loss. Designated for assignment are Jesus Colome and Kanekoa Texeira. Up are Sean White and Garrett Olson.

First of all, I am happy to see Colome finally cut loose. I specifically mentioned that I would ditch him in my rant on the M's over the weekend. I also said I would let Wak call up whomever he wanted to take his place, and I figured that man would be Sean White.

So, White for Colome is a fine move in my book. I don't think it makes much of a difference, but Colome clearly was not an answer, short term or long term. He was a logical guy to make a change with, especially after such a wild outing in Anaheim.

Bringing up Garett Olson doesn't bother me much either. He was pitching fine in Tacoma's starting rotation, but shifted to the bullpen by the M's several weeks ago. As a reliever, he has looked quite good, albeit with a small sample size. Still, Olson has demonstrated better command and a better ability to miss bats in AAA than he did a year ago, and the team is yet to find a reliable left-handed reliever since Z and Wak have been in town (though they haven't exactly gone looking either).

What bothers me is DFAing Texeira. He is only 24 years old, and making the jump from AA to the major leagues. An adjustment period should have been expected. On top of that, he only got 16 appearances in the first two months of the season. Many established relievers would be inconsistent with such sparse work, so a youngster trying to make major adjustments on the fly is likely to have problems as well.

Sure enough, Kanekoa posted a 5.30 ERA out of the bullpen this year in his appearances. However, even that number is misleading. His FIP is 3.39, and BABIP a remarkably high .363. Both numbers suggest that Texeira should have more success moving forward, and that doesn't count any development that could occur as he matures and adjusts to major league hitters.

As a brief aside, Colome also projects to be better moving forward, but not as good as Texeira...and Colome is eight years older, and teams have been trying to improve his command for a decade now (with no success).

I doubt the Mariners just gave up on the next Robb Nen or Trevor Hoffman, but they never took the time to find out what they had with Texeira. To me, it is eerily reminiscent to what Bill Bavasi did with guys like Scott Podsednik and Greg Dobbs. Neither are stars, but the Mariners could have used them, and had to burn through resources to find replacements.

Kanekoa Texeira should have been in Colome's role all season. Based on what I saw, he was good enough to handle the mop-up role just fine. I wonder if this team would have cut him if he had been given the opportunities to pitch that should have been his in the first place.

Based on what I have seen, the Mariners are not good enough to justify giving up on a guy like Texeira, especially in a season like this. It wreaks of another short-sighted, mostly cosmetic fix. However, unlike firing the hitting coach, this move has a chance to come back and bite them.