Arne Christensen, aka hatomama, runs 1995mariners.com and has provided a few retrospective posts to help us get through the offseason.  This one is the follow up to his November 13th post.

Derek Lowe came out of high school in Dearborn, Michigan, as an eighth-round pick of the Mariners in 1991. Lowe’s first-ever Mariners spring training appearance came in early April 1993, after spending 1992 never getting above Class A ball. He walked two and gave up a single to load the bases with none out in the second inning. As Lou Piniella explained, “I told him he had better stuff than major league hitters could hit, but he had to throw it. He looked a little sheepish, and I said, ‘Get out of this with just one run in, son.’ He didn’t give up any.”

A bit over four years later, in late April, 1997, Lowe made his debut with the regular season Mariners. In explaining the move, Piniella said: “Dave Myers (the Tacoma manager) told me Lowe had seven consistent starts going back to spring training.” That streak didn’t continue with the Mariners: Lowe didn’t give Mariners management much reason to keep him on. After two mediocre relief appearances, he went back to Tacoma and pitched well there, but came back to Seattle and posted a 7.23 ERA in ten games, giving up seven runs in his final start for the Mariners. All in all, Lowe went 2-4 over 12 games and nine starts, with a 6.96 ERA, before being sent back down to Tacoma in July. But upon arriving in Boston, Lowe immediately started pitching at least adequately well as a reliever.

Varitek, on the other hand, came out of Georgia Tech very highly touted. He was named Baseball America’s College Player of the Year in June 1994 after posting a .429 average, 14 home runs and 75 RBI with Georgia Tech. He won the Golden Spikes Award and was a three-time All-American at Georgia Tech, and was in the middle of leading the team to a runner-up finish in the College World Series, with some help from junior teammate Nomar Garciaparra, when the Mariners picked him 14th in the June draft. After being drafted, Varitek, who’d been drafted 21st by the Twins in 1993 and didn’t sign, said: “It’s definitely in my best interest to get it (a contract) done as quickly as possible.” That wasn’t exactly good initial bargaining, but Varitek added: “I just hope they (Mariners) treat me with respect and dignity. That’s all I can ask for.”

Varitek didn’t meekly sign for whatever Seattle offered: he had Scott Boras for his agent, and he bargained hard, refusing to take less than $800,000 and signing with an independent league team in St. Paul when he couldn’t reach terms with Seattle. Of course the strike started not long after the draft, and Varitek spent his time that fall and winter finishing a degree in management at Georgia Tech and working out. In April 1995 he finally signed on for less than he wanted (I don’t know exactly how much, but around $650,000). At the time, Roger Jongewaard, Mariners VP for scouting and player development, said: “He’s a very strong and durable guy, has a good arm and switch-hits. He could move through our system very rapidly.”

As it turned out, Varitek actually spent two years in AA at Port City, but did pretty well with Tacoma in 1997 before the trade to Boston. In early 1997, Larry Beinfest, Mariners director of player development, said: “He is probably one of the top three workers in our minor-league system.  One of the hardest workers in the entire organization. He is dedicated to his career and will make himself the best he can be.

“If it’s blocking drills in the bullpen, taking extra BP, working in the weight room, whatever, he wants to play in the big leagues and he’ll do whatever it takes to get there.”

Despite the praise, Dan Wilson was a good, fairly young catcher in place ahead of Varitek. So, instead of having him audition to take the starting job from Wilson, the Mariners decided to trade Varitek. The what-ifs about the Mariners of the late ’90s are considerable, and as time passes, it gets harder and harder to understand why a team with such great talent failed to even get to the World Series once. One of the big what-ifs is projecting what might have happened if the Mariners had decided to simply put Lowe in their bullpen instead of Heathcliff Slocumb in late 1997, and either traded Varitek for a better pitcher than Slocumb or kept his switch-hitting bat and traded Wilson for a good pitcher or two.

Slocumb did at least give Mariners fans the memory of helping the team clinch the A.L. West in ’97: