When Jerry Dipoto went out of his way to praise Lloyd McClendon at his introductory press conference he was effusive in his “respect” for McClendon and repeatedly used that half-compliment so common in the game: “Great baseball man”.
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Following the hiring of Jerry Dipoto, Mariners president Kevin Mather released a statement talking about the new general manager. He joins Bob Melvin, Mike Hargrove, John McClaren, Jim Riggleman, Don Wakamatsu, Daren Brown, and Wedge as Mariner managers hired and fired without the team making the playoffs.
For McClendon, the handwriting on the wall wasn’t in erasable pencil.
Dipoto said nice things about McClendon, and McClendon said nice things about Dipoto, but as marriages ago, this one was destined to be as brief as Cher’s happily-ever-after life with Gregg Allman.
“In the end, I didn’t feel like it was a very good match between Lloyd and I”. He has a gruff manner that hides not only a keen sense of humor, but a caring heart.
But bench coach Trent Jewett, third-base coach Rich Donnelly, outfield coach Andy Van Slyke and bullpen coach Mike Rojas will not return.
McClendon not only had the Mariners’ underachieving 2015 season working against him. McClendon’s mentor is Jim Leyland, who might be the poster boy of old school. He was the Texas Rangers interim manager a year ago, but lost his job to Jeff Bannister who has committed full time to the position. The Mariners were a major disappointment this year and reports have Tim Bogar and Bud Black as potential options to take over and this comes as Hisashi Iwakuma is a top free agent priority for the M’s.
McClendon said he had not spoken with Dipoto since Monday before receiving a phone call Friday that he would not return for the final season of his three-year contract.
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If you want to get technical, McClendon probably was doomed when Zduriencik was sacked. Dipoto took the time to get to know McClendon over the past week, but it never seemed likely McClendon would be retained.
