GM Bavasi takes fall for underachieving Mariners

SEATTLE -- It was Bill Bavasi's last ditch effort, the desperation of a frustrated man trying to find a spark and save his job.

Two weeks ago, Bavasi locked the doors in the Seattle Mariners clubhouse and forced his underachieving 25-man roster to sit together and be publicly held accountable for their spiraling season.

Childish? Yes. Punishment? Yes. Bavasi's last attempt at salvaging his job as Seattle's general manager? Yep.

"What I did was stupid," Bavasi said Monday after being fired. "The goal was to have them for once be in the same place at the same time after a game, after they had played real poorly.

"Sometimes you lose and sometimes you get beat. There is a difference, and we have lost too many games."

Whether getting beat or flat losing, there's been too much of it in Seattle this season, and Bavasi was relieved of his duties Monday morning in the midst of his fifth season with the Mariners. Seattle is 24-45, worst in the majors, with a roster many thought had the talent to challenge the Los Angeles Angels in the AL West this season.

Bavasi was hired after the 2003 season, replacing Pat Gillick. He inherited an aging team that just two years earlier had won 116 games, but failed to make the World Series. He was also asked to rebuild a lagging farm system, tapped of top-end talent through various moves. The Mariners have redeveloped their minor-league system, but the major-league product has struggled.

"We've just got to win," Seattle manager John McLaren said. "It's kind of mind boggling what we've gone through, and I've had a lot of nights staying up late trying to figure things out. We have talent, we play hard and for some reason that's not getting it done."

So, Bavasi is the fall guy for an underachieving group that he characterized as "dysfunctional." The move will certainly satisfy a large segment of Mariners' fans, who continually questioned some of Bavasi's moves.

It's now up to McLaren and interim GM Lee Pelekoudas to keep a year of promise from morphing into the worst season in franchise history. Otherwise, as CEO Howard Lincoln and team president Chuck Armstrong indicated, more changes could be coming. Both indicated no one is off limits, even franchise stalwarts like Ichiro Suzuki and Felix Hernandez, however unlikely their departure.

"Clearly the high expectations we had for the team going into the season have fallen by the wayside," Lincoln said. "It's clear that we need a new leadership, a new direction, a fresh approach.

"We're going to make whatever changes necessary to get this thing turned around as quick as possible," Lincoln added, "and nothing is off the table."

Only once in his five years did Bavasi turn out a club that finished with a wining record. That was last year when Seattle won a surprising 88 games, and was in contention for a playoff spot into September.