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Free agent Ken Griffey Jr. hit 398 homers in 11 years with Seattle.

Griffey rumors dominate first day

Star could rejoin M's next week

By JOHN HICKEY
P-I REPORTER

PEORIA, Ariz. -- On the Mariners' first day of spring training, most of the discussion swirled around someone who wasn't at spring training and isn't a Mariner.

That would be Ken Griffey Jr., who wasn't on hand Friday as pitchers and catchers reported to the Peoria Sports Complex for their annual physical exams.

By this time next week Griffey is expected to be a Mariner, but for the moment, he's just another unemployed baseball player trying to find a job.

There are other jobs out there that he could get -- teams have told him he might be a fallback for them -- but returning to the Mariners is what Griffey wants.

Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu was in the team's minor league system as a player when Griffey was the brightest star in the Mariners galaxy. But he never met baseball's active home run leader until two years ago at a Cincinnati-Texas game.

"That was the very first time I talked to him," he said. "It was behind the batting cage. It was, like, two minutes."

Speculation is that Wakamatsu and general manager Jack Zduriencik will meet with Griffey before any deal is complete, but Wakamatsu downplayed that kind of talk after going through his physical exam.

"I'll leave that up to Jack," he said. "But I've told him I support him in every move he makes."

Could Griffey be a distraction in the clubhouse this spring?

If Wakamatsu had any concerns, he covered them up well.

"When you are talking about the environment of the clubhouse," he said, "that's my responsibility and the responsibility of my staff."

The fact is, Griffey is a distraction now only in a minor way -- the media locally and nationally are interested in seeing how things will go. But for Wakamatsu, there are more immediate issues.

And with Friday being the first day of spring training almost all of the issues were positive.

One was the look of starter Carlos Silva, who reported to camp about 30 pounds lighter than he ended 2008 after a winter devoted to yoga, workouts and changing his eating habits.

Silva, who was a terrible 4-15 with a 6.46 ERA last season, looks like an athlete again, which pleased both the pitcher and the manager.

"I just followed the program they gave me," Silva said, his wide smile a stark contrast to the grim visage of Silva in July, August and September. "I started about the second week of October and didn't stop. I worked out six days a week.

"I was able to not think about last year and think about getting back into shape. I don't have back pain now. I never had back pain before this, and my back feels great now."

Wakamatsu said Silva "looks split in half."

"I had to hug him when I saw him," Wakamatsu said. "I wanted to see if I could put my arms around him. I could. Last year, I'm pretty sure I couldn't."

Silva, from Venezuela, is one of several Mariners pitchers who might be taking part in the World Baseball Classic. Countryman Felix Hernandez will take part, and Ryan Rowland-Smith, who is trying to pitch his way into the starting rotation, is still agonizing about staying with the Mariners all spring or pitching for Australia.

He says he figures he doesn't want to hurt his chances of being a starter by playing in the WBC, but he'd also love to pitch for his country.

The Mariners have an abundance of starting pitchers -- Hernandez, Silva and Rowland-Smith joined by Brandon Morrow, Erik Bedard, Garrett Olson and Jarrod Washburn. Because of that, Wakamatsu won't have to struggle finding pitchers to start once the Cactus League season begins.