THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: With Brash ailing, M's need a Brash clone

You’ve heard the phrase a million times.

“We’re just one player away from winning it all.”

In the case of the Mariners, that old cliché just might be true.

They ARE just one player away.

Not only that, he’s on the roster.

We’re talking about relief pitcher Matt Brash, and he can’t help at the moment.

In fact, he may struggle to brush his hair, since he’s just begun rehab from Tommy John surgery.

You hate to say it was a cinch that Brash would be going under the knife, but he was certainly a serious candidate.

Brash led all of major league baseball with 78 appearances last season.

He wasn’t Scott Servais’ closer, except when needed.

No, Brash’s everyday role was more like “break-glass-in-emergency.”

Didn’t matter what inning.

Whenever Servais looked at the game situation and decided that it was likely to be win-or-lose right now, he’d summon Brash.

And exhale.

With his combination of a fastball that rode 97 to 99 mph, and a vicious slider that jerked sideways so violently that hitters tweaked their backs, Brash got the Mariners out of nearly every jam.

But, oh, the stress on that arm.

IT WAS never likely that the Mariners could find a Brash clone for this season.

Everyone knew that.

The plan to ease the pain involved a lights-out starting rotation that could go deeper into games (and not depart with a small village of baserunners for the bullpen to worry about).

Next item was that the Seattle offense would strike out less and score more, relieving the pressure on the pitching staff.

That one hasn’t exactly been a booming success, at least not yet.

The Mariners have come up with some late-game, high-pressure hits, however, an area that foiled them repeatedly a year ago.

The final item on piecing things back together was, ahem, finding a replacement for Matt Brash.

OK, we shouldn’t use the word “replacement.”

The Mariners’ decision-makers needed to come up with a poor man’s Matt Brash — a cold-blooded reliever with high-energy stuff who could be called upon in the most dangerous situations.

Nobody expected there would be another Brash, but a decent successor?

Maybe?

This was going to be critical piece of business for team president Jerry Dipoto and GM Justin Hollander.

The Mariners’ formula for winning (“Matt Brash Imitates James Bond”) depended big-time on their one magic reliever pitching out of the worst crises.

Brash helped manage to stitch together good work from the starters, a rally here and there from the offense, and finally, Andres Munoz slamming the door in the ninth inning.

With Brash out for the year, the Mariners felt they MIGHT have plugged the gap (at least, somewhat) with the addition of Gregory Santos via trade with the White Sox.

Unfortunately, Santos has been bugged by “lat” soreness since spring training, and his rehab has been bugged by a series of setbacks.

For all of April and most of May, the club hoped that Santos would be back – eating up those “Matt Brash Innings.”

At the moment, the latest prognosis is the end of July.

Sigh.

IT’S JUST about time to declare the Santos-for-Brash plan dead on arrival.

The bad news, of course, is that the Mariners need that emergency reliever strategy to make their game plan sing.

Several games already have slipped away because nobody from the bullpen could stop the bleeding. 

Seattle’s four-game lead in the AL West could be six or seven, and that difference might be haunting in September.

Sure, I understand why the M’s haven’t done anything dramatic so far.

It’s probably not fair to blame Trent Thornton or Cody Barton or Austin Voth for the crime of not being Matt Brash.

Fair enough, but what now?

The Mariners can try to ride the horse they’re on, and hope that the injury riddled Rangers never put together one of those 12-game winning streaks.

Or, they can trade for a true impact reliever with killer stuff and super-low blood pressure.

An actual replacement for Matt Brash.

There are mega-talents around, if Dipoto and Hollander are willing to push some major chips to the center of the table.

Oakland’s spectacular Mason Miller (26 innings, 51 Ks, 0.887 WHIP, 2.08 ERA) almost surely can be made available, but the A’s would demand a spanking new Maserati from Dipoto’s garage to wow the neighbors in Sacramento.

Or, if not that shiny red Maserati, then three glittering prospects from the Seattle farm system.

Ouch!

Now that would be putting the ultimate question to Jerry and Justin.

Are you REALLY just one player away?

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press four times each week, normally Tuesday through Friday unless, you know, stuff happens.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”