Newest Mariner reliever 'excited'
By Kirby Arnold Herald Writer
OAKLAND, Calif. - No day in Giovanni Carrara's professional life seemed worse than last Wednesday.
The Los Angeles Dodgers, the team he thought finally would be his ticket to the playoffs this year, decided he wasn't even good enough to help them in the regular season.
The Dodgers waived him.
"I never thought that was going to happen," Carrara said. "I was surprised big-time."
Twenty-four hours later he was pinching himself again, in a good way, at where he wound up.
The Seattle Mariners, a team needing a veteran pitcher in middle relief, signed the 35-year-old Carrara back into playoff contention.
"I was really excited because I was going to a team that really has a shot to go to the World Series," said Carrara, a native of Venezuela who is good friends with fellow countrymen Freddy Garcia and Carlos Guillen of the Mariners. "It's the best thing to happen to me."
It could be a good thing for the Mariners, too, based on what they know about the right-hander.
He's a durable pitcher who can work in a variety of roles - middle relief, setup and even start on occasion - and adds further to a clubhouse filled with veterans. This is his 13th professional season, his fourth in the major leagues.
Carrara essentially was squeezed out of a job with the Dodgers. When Kevin Brown returned to the L.A. rotation, it pushed Andy Ashby into the bullpen in middle relief.
"Ashby is doing the job that I was doing and I was the one who paid for it," Carrara said. "But this is a business and I'm with a great team right now."
Carrara is 15-11 lifetime with a 5.15 ERA, but last year with the Dodgers he was 6-3, 3.28. He throws a fastball in the low-90 mph range and keeps hitters honest with a cutter, changeup and curve.
What the Mariners like most is his control. He pitched 176 innings the last two years, striking out 126 and walking just 56.
"He's a strike-thrower and an inning-eater," said Roger Jongewaard, the Mariners' scouting director.
"I've heard nothing but good things about him," pitching coach Bryan Price said. "The way he competes, his resiliency, his ability to throw strikes, he can get left handed and right-handed hitters out. We were pleased that a player like that was available to us."
The Mariners certainly didn't base their signing decision on Carrara's spring training numbers. He pitched 13 innings for the Dodgers with an 8.31 ERA.
"If you go by the numbers, the veteran guys here for the most part wouldn't have made this team," Price said. "Some of them were fairly atrocious."
Two men, especially, knew what the Mariners were getting.
Carrara pitched for Toronto when general manager Pat Gillick was the GM there in the mid-1990s, and Dodgers pitching coach Jim Colburn gave the M's high praise after they dropped him last week. Before he took the L.A. job, Colburn was the Mariners' Pacific Rim scouting director.
"He can pitch every day," Gillick said. "He can start in an emergency, but he's basically going to help us in the middle innings. He's a very durable guy."
And, Carrara is quick to add, he's a very happy guy.
As he suited up for the Mariners' season opener Tuesday afternoon, Carrara couldn't help but gush over his new surroundings.
"This team is like a family, everyone is together," he said. "I've been watching this team for two or three years and you could see that. Hopefully, I can help this team. This team has a chance to win it all."