Junior Partner

Jose Cruz Jr., who had just gone hitless in a lopsided exhibition defeat, was not at all eager to face what seemed like the millionth interview since he arrived in the Seattle Mariners’ camp.

The former Lancaster JetHawk, who has been under the microscope because he is supposed to be the final piece to a stellar Seattle Mariner outfield that includes All-Stars Ken Griffey Jr. and Jay Buhner, was asked if the media attention was becoming grueling.

“Nah,” he said, balling up his sweat-soaked jersey and tossing it into a laundry bin. “It’s just getting hot down here.”

Yeah, the temperatures have been pretty high, too.

As each Mariner exhibition goes into the books, the pressure grows, the day of reckoning nears.

Will Cruz be playing left field in a sold-out Kingdome on April 1 against the world champion New York Yankees? Or will he be 30 miles south--but a world away--playing left field for the triple-A Tacoma Rainiers?

Cruz has hit .321 (17 for 53) in spring training games and just about everyone has tabbed him as the Mariners’ left fielder.

Everyone except the Mariners, that is.

“So far he’s done a very fine job,” Mariner General Manager Woody Woodward said. “In all areas he has been solid. Where we stand right now is still up in the air.”

Lee Tinsley, a journeyman outfielder, and Rich Amaral, a utility outfielder-infielder, are both expected to make the Mariner roster. If Cruz doesn’t make the team, they will platoon in left field.

If Cruz makes the team, that would probably push Amaral into more time in the infield, and the Mariners would rather Amaral stay in the outfield.

Whatever roster move is made, at worst it will only be delaying Cruz’s inevitable breakthrough to the majors.

“[Cruz] will be ready this year, in my opinion,” Woodward said. “Whether it’s to open the season or later than that, he will be ready to get his first shot.”

Which is quite a statement from Woodward, who has been cautious in pushing top prospects into the majors. Woodward went against many others in the organization, who were ready to hand the job to the 1995 first-round pick.

“We had a lot of people who were figuring he was ready this year and I had taken the same approach I took with Junior [Griffey] several years ago,” Woodward said. “I said, ‘Let’s see what he does,” but I was leaning toward him spending a little extra time in triple-A.”

But in a season and a half of professional baseball, Cruz has not allowed the Mariners to take it slowly.

When he packed his bags for Lancaster last spring, the Mariners said he might stay there all year. But he was hitting .325 for the JetHawks at the all-star break, and quickly said goodbye to Lancaster and the California League.

He moved up to double A, hitting .282 in 47 games. That earned him a promotion to triple A for the final 22 games. In the three stops, he hit a combined .293 with 15 home runs and 89 runs batted in, winning the Mariners’ organizational player of the year award.

Calls for the 22-year-old Cruz to be the 1997 left fielder increased as he got off to a torrid start in winter ball in Puerto Rico. They were somewhat quieted when he finished with a slide that dropped his average to .233.

The slump was what stuck in the minds of the Mariner executives as spring training opened, causing them to reevaluate their timetable for him.

But Cruz’s performance so far has erased the doubts--well, most of the doubts--of the management and his teammates.

“There were some question marks about whether he was ready but he’s come down here and really done a good job,” Buhner said. “He’s put pressure on [the front office] and made their decision tougher.”

That decision could be driving Cruz crazy, causing him to worry if every bad swing is the one that will cost him the opening night job.

It could be, but it’s not.

Even after Friday’s game, when he was hitless in four at-bats with two strikeouts, he was upbeat.

“You can’t get a hit every day,” he said. “I just have to try to keep working hard every day like I’ve been doing, and hope things fall into place.”