Piniella Asks for Release

Seattle Mariner Manager Lou Piniella has asked out of the final year of his $6.8-million contract, the Seattle Times reported on its Web site Saturday night.

Piniella made the formal request Friday during a meeting in Tampa, Fla., with Seattle team officials, including Chief Executive Howard Lincoln.

“I asked them if I could be allowed to get closer to home,” Piniella told the Times from his home in Tampa. “We had an amicable meeting, as amicable as amicable can be. We talked for over an hour. Now they’re going to make a decision.”

Mariner President Chuck Armstrong accompanied Lincoln and General Manager Pat Gillick to Florida and said the team had not yet granted Piniella’s request.

“ESPN reports that we have given permission for Lou to talk to the Mets or Devil Rays are absolutely false,” Armstrong said.

Piniella, 59, has been Seattle’s manager for the last 10 seasons. After tying the major league record with 116 victories and reaching the AL championship series for the second straight season in 2001, the Mariners finished third in the AL West this year.

But they won 93 games, the second-highest total in franchise history, and led the majors in attendance for the second year in a row.

After the Mariners’ final home game two weeks ago, Piniella was asked if he could say definitively that he would be back in 2003. “I’m signed for next year,” he said.

Piniella was unhappy with the Mariners because they would not increase their $90-million payroll at the trade deadline in July. He hoped the team would add a veteran hitter or starting pitcher.