SEATTLE — When the Seattle Seahawks traded Percy Harvin to the New York Jets last week, they didn’t just admit to making a mistake in acquiring the receiver in the first place, they added a new position, or more accurately, a desire to fill a position, to a dubious list in Seattle sports history.
Thanks to Harvin, Deion Branch and T.J. Houshmandzadeh, the Seahawks in the past decade have been about as successful at acquiring star receivers as the Mariners have been in finding a long-term answer in left field, and as the Sonics were at drafting 7-footers the last decade (OK, so technically Mouhamed Sene was listed at 6-11).
So maybe, with Harvin’s tenure lasting all of 19 months, now is a good time for a declaration for Seattle sports teams: just give up on acquiring star-caliber receivers, permanent solutions in left field, or if Seattle ever gets back the NBA team it deserves, 7-footers with first-round picks.
While I have a suspicion that most would happily take a draft bust or two if it meant getting the Sonics back, it’s hard not to look back on the 2004-2006 drafts and not chuckle at the first-round picks: Robert Swift (12th overall), Johan Petro (25th) and Sene (10th). Swift lasted just three seasons in Seattle and four in the NBA, never starting more than the 20 games in a season; Sene played three seasons in the league, starting just three games and appearing in 47, and Petro, the most “successful” of that trio of first-rounders, spent eight seasons in the league, averaging 4.7 points and 3.9 rebounds per game. But again, it would be pretty great to see the Sonics have a chance to waste a first-round pick on a 7-footer you’ve never heard of, right?
The Mariners, meanwhile, have been such a disaster in left field that it probably deserves its own column … Oh wait, in fact my friend Larry Stone at the Seattle Times wrote one in May of 2011, noting back then that Seattle had used 271 left fielders in their history. Stability didn’t come in the 2012 or ‘13 seasons, with the Mariners adding two more names to the opening-day starter list, Mike Carp and Mike Morse (they’ve gone through all the first names by now, hence the duplication). Though the Mariners maybe, just maybe, found the answer by moving their onetime second baseman of the future, Dustin Ackley, to left. In all, the Mariners have started 26 different players in left field on opening day in 38 seasons, by far the least stable position in their history.
You may know Bruce Bochy is managing the Giants in the World Series this week, but did you remember that Bruce Bochte played left field for the Mariners? Seattle also tried a board game company, Milton Bradley; they traded away Junior, Jose Cruz, not Ken Griffey, though they traded Griffey, too. They went with McLemore — no kids, not the rapper, but Mark. They traded the best manager in franchise history for Randy Winn, hardly a move to (Darren) Bragg about, all to find a left fielder.
And now, star receiver goes on this dubious list in Seattle sports. It’s fitting that the Seahawks acquired the best receiver in franchise history, one of the best in NFL history, without a huge effort, using a fourth-round pick on Steve Largent.
It isn’t that the Seahawks haven’t had good receivers throughout their history, it’s that recent attempts at splashy acquisitions have been a disaster. In 2006, the Seahawks sent a first-round pick to New England for Branch, who in Seattle struggled with injuries, never caught more than the 53 receptions he had in 2006, and was eventually traded back to the Patriots for a fourth round pick.
The 2009 Seahawks signed T.J. Houshmandzadeh to a five-year, $40 million deal, but he didn’t last nearly that long, because after a regime change, Pete Carroll and John Schneider decided they’d rather pay Houshmandzadeh’s guaranteed $7 million salary to have him not play for them in 2010.
Seeing as Carroll and Schneider were quick to jettison Houshmandzadeh, and that they also traded Branch for the pick (K.J. Wright) they’d eventually use at starting linebacker, clearly the current front office wasn’t going to do something foolish to add a playmaker at receiver, right?
Or maybe they’d end up sending a first-, third- and seventh-round pick to Minnesota for Harvin, a player Carroll knew might be trouble and one who has had a troubled reputation since high school. Those three picks and $19 million later, the Seahawks gave up on Harvin, who played all of eight games with Seattle, getting a conditional sixth-round pick in return.
Maybe the Seahawks should have called the Mariners before finalizing that deal. Harvin could probably cover a lot of ground in left field, after all.
Herald Columnist John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com
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