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Thursday, July 31, 2003
Updated: August 1, 9:57 PM ET
Nelson: 'It's frustrating for everybody in here'
Associated Press
SEATTLE -- Freddy Garcia is still in Seattle and Aaron Boone
isn't coming to the Mariners.
"I was ready for something to happen, but I wanted to stay,"
Garcia, a two-time All-Star right-hander, said after surviving the
trade deadline Thursday.
Garcia is 9-10 this season, with a 5.17 ERA, highest among
Seattle's five starters.
"I'm pretty happy," Garcia said following the Mariners' 4-0
victory over the Detroit Tigers. Joel Pineiro, 13-5, was the
winning pitcher.
The Mariners couldn't get Boone so they didn't do anything as
the trade deadline passed.
Boone -- Cincinnati's All-Star third baseman and the younger
brother of the Mariners' All-Star second baseman, Bret Boone -- was
swapped to the New York Yankees instead. He was reportedly the
player the Mariners most wanted.
General manager Pat Gillick wouldn't confirm that Thursday, but
Gillick reportedly attempted to arrange a three-team trade
involving Boston and Cincinnati. Garcia would have gone to the Red
Sox and Boone would have come to Seattle in the swap.
"We'd like to have done something," Gillick said in a
telephone conference call from Toronto before the Detroit-Seattle
game. "But things just didn't come together."
Bret Boone said he was "happy" for his brother getting to go
to the Yankees, but thought the Mariners should be applauded for
trying to help themselves.
"I have all the confidence in the world that they tried,"
Boone said. "You can't expect at the trade deadline time of the
year that you're going to get a major player."
Veteran reliever Jeff Nelson thought otherwise. Nelson, who will
become a free agent at the end of this season, was extremely
critical of the Mariners' front office for failing to do something
to help the team get to the World Series for the first time.
"This is not a small market," Nelson said. "You see Oakland
doing it, and they have a much smaller market than the Mariners.
It's frustrating for everybody in here, and it should be frustrating for the people who pay for the tickets and these
outrageous prices for these concession stands."
The Seattle front office was under pressure to do something
Thursday after Oakland, which is chasing the Mariners in the tight
AL West race, improved its offense Wednesday by acquiring Jose
Guillen in a trade with Cincinnati.
Still, the Mariners did nothing except add shortstop Rey
Sanchez, 35, in a minor deal with the New York Mets on Tuesday.
Sanchez was in the lineup Thursday against Detroit in place of
Carlos Guillen, who went on the disabled list with an inflammation
of the pelvis.
"I can't name names out there, but we were trying to better the
club," first-year manager Bob Melvin said.
Gillick admitted the Mariners' lack of success at the trade
deadline was a letdown.
"I imagine the fans will be disappointed," he said. "But I
think the fans know we want to win as much as they do and we've got
a competitive team. It's just that the deal we wanted to make had
to make sense and it didn't for us."
Under Chairman and CEO Howard Lincoln, the Mariners have been
reluctant to go beyond their budget at the trade deadline in recent
years and their fans have been critical of them for that.
Gillick denied money was the major factor.
"I think we had some flexibility that we could have done a few
things," he said. "For one reason or another, clubs chose to go
in another direction. We were very hopeful something would happen.
It just didn't go."