CINCINNATI — Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon is on the American League coaching staff and wants the baseball world to understand he never meant to slight the team’s starting pitcher, Dallas Keuchel.
After a 4-1 Astros win over the Mariners in May 2014, McClendon said he saw average stuff, and that “at some point you’ve got to stop giving credit to average pitchers.”
But McClendon said Monday he never actually felt Keuchel was merely an average pitcher.
“No, that’s not what I said,” McClendon said. “I’ll tell you exactly what I said. And I likened him to Tom Glavine, I said he’s a good pitcher that had average stuff.