‘Big Unit’ Not Ready To Start, Might Not Return To M’S Rotation

Randy Johnson told the Seattle Mariners what he has been telling the press for a week - that he’s not ready to start a game - and the Mariners responded Saturday with a realistic reaction.

“Randy isn’t ready to start, and I’m not optimistic he’ll be ready to start again this season,” manager Lou Piniella said.

“To keep stretching him out would mean trying to schedule four or five or more innings every four or five days for him, and that doesn’t seem possible.

“What we’re going to do from now on is use him as we would any reliever - as the game dictates.”

Piniella and his staff had tentatively pencilled Johnson into the Monday night start in New York after the “Big Unit” had worked nine innings in relief without allowing a run.

But Johnson, who first voiced his doubts even before a four-inning relief appearance last Tuesday in the Kingdome, reiterated them Saturday - though to team trainer Rick Griffin, not to Piniella.

Before the game Saturday, Johnson said he knew nothing about Monday night.

“No one has told me anything,” he said.

But Piniella had already gotten word, through Griffin, that Johnson didn’t want to pitch.

The quandary, however, is what to do with Johnson - how to work him into a pitching staff that has been reshuffled by his request to pitch in Seattle and not on a minor-league rehabilitation assignment.

For Monday night’s game, the Mariners will start Rafael Carmona. On Tuesday in Baltimore, it will be rookie Matt Wagner, who will be recalled from Tacoma. As for Johnson? The team has one long reliever already in Bob Wells, so Johnson may well become a situational reliever - used in whatever role the game de jour demands. He could pitch an inning or two, he could pitch to a hitter or two.

That won’t build his stamina toward a start. What it will do, since he has declined a rehab assignment, is cost someone a roster spot when the team makes room for Wagner.

“It’s a situation where Lou and Randy are both right,” one Mariners player said. “Randy hasn’t thrown many innings, and he doesn’t feel he’s ready, so why risk injury?

“At the same time, if he pitched four innings in relief last week, why can’t he pitch five as a starter, then keep building on that?”