My Vote for Fifth Starter

John McLaren will soon settle the 3-5 spots in the starting rotation (#1 is Bedard, #2 is Felix). Why do this so early? McLaren tells The Times' Geoff Baker: "I don't like indecision. I want to let everybody know where they are so they can do what they have to do in their minds."

I'm hoping McLaren does an eminently unfair thing and picks Miguel Batista as the M's fifth starter.

Unfair because Batista led the team in wins last year with 16.

But better for the team because Batista is more versatile than the other candidates, Carlos Silva and Jarrod Washburn. Whoever ends up being the fifth starter will get skipped every once in a while--it would be nice if that pitcher was available in the bullpen.

Batista's comfortable switching between starting and relief work--in 10 of his last 11 seasons, he's both started and pitched out of the bullpen.

Last year, Batista pitched an inning of relief on just two days rest to help take the load off of an exhausted Mariner pen. (He got a win out of it, too.)

Silva's been almost exclusively a starter the past four seasons. He worked out of the pen for a couple of weeks in '06 after starting the season 2-6 with an 8.80 ERA, but reclaimed his starting role soon after.

Last time Washburn pitched in relief was the week after Safeco Field opened.

If Batista could slide into the pen every once in a while and give the M's an inning or two, it would go a long way toward forestalling the bullpen collapse we saw at the end of last year. I can't go through that again.