The Mariners fired Don Wakamatsu today. Has a franchise ever crashed and burned so quickly? Well, yeah, probably, but the Mariners' crash-and-burn 2010 is still impressive.
Wakamatsu didn't get fired because of a 42-70 record. He was fired because he lost the clubhouse, and GM Jack Zduriencik ultimately backed the players over the manager.
The first public crack was the Griffey situation. Backed into a desperate corner as the losses mounted, Wakamatsu finally, justifiably, benched Griffey. That lost some of the clubhouse veterans, who apparently value veteran loyalty over winning. Griffey exacerbated it by abruptly quitting and not bothering to say goodbye to the coaching staff or players, justifying the absurd belief among some in the clubhouse that Griffey was wronged.
The second public crack was the Figgins fiasco. Figgins dogged it, Wakamatsu confronted him, they dropped F-bombs on each other and then nearly threw fists. Wakamatsu handled the situation unprofessionally, which burned the remaining bridges in the clubhouse. And then Zduriencik backed Figgins, who was never made to apologize for challenging the manager in the dugout.
And who knows what happened behind closed doors that never became public.
Now, for all of Wakamatsu's faults, Wakamatsu was royally set up for failure this season because of the team Zduriencik built:
Bringing back Griffey was bad -- the aging superstar is the hardest player to manage let alone one as petulant as Griffey -- but the sin was also bringing back Mike Sweeney. Griffey and Sweeney are the same player -- they can't run, field or hit. Bring back one if you must, but not both.
Making those moves worse was the fact that Milton Bradley was already on the roster. He's your DH. You don't want Bradley playing in the outfield considering his injury history. So, on Day 1, Wakamatsu's roster consisted of three designated hitters with little value elsewhere. Good luck with that.
But Zduriencik and the front office knew all that. It's no great surprise that the Mariners have less offense than a unicycle. Everyone paying attention knew that would be a problem. The plan, though, was pitching and defense would keep the team in it long enough for Zduriencik to work out some kind of move to bolster the offense.
That never happened, though, because the pitching and defense never lived up to their billing. The starting pitching never reached its potential -- Cliff Lee missed a month with injury, Ryan Rowland-Smith completely tanked, Ian Snell tanked ever worse, Erik Bedard never returned from shoulder surgery. The rotation has been decent at times (outside of Felix Hernandez, that is, who has been dominant all year) but not nearly as good as it needed to be.
The bullpen has been a train wreck all season. The M's have nine walk-off losses, a 4.47 bullpen ERA, 13 blown saves, a .764 OPS against (4th highest in AL), a 64.0 save percentage (13th in AL). That bullpen blows.
The defense has been good, but it needed to be great, and, early in the season when the M's still had a chance, it was especially sloppy. And, don't forget, it was Zduriencik's call to play Figgins out of position at second base and Jose Lopez out of position at third base, a move that largely has backfired.
So, the deck was stacked against Wakamatsu from the outset. When the losses piled up, the whole house folded in on itself.
It's disappointing for Wakamatsu, and disappointing for the Mariners, who can't get off the rebuilding treadmill. And, safe to say, the shine is off Zduriencik (Brandon Morrow says hello, btw).
It's a pretty weak move by Zduriencik. He's the one who hand-picked Wakamatsu just a year and a half ago. What changed in Wakamatsu? If Wakamatsu is that weak of a manager for Zduriencik to have lost confidence in him after just a half season of losing, well, that's on Zduriencik. Either he made a monumental error in hiring Wakamatsu in the first place, which should cause everyone to question his every other move, or he cut and run quickly because it's easier to fire a manager than to fire the troublemaking players. Either way, it's on Zduriencik.