Geoff Baker writes about why the Mariners trade for Matt Lueke, a pitcher accused of violence against a woman, is an important story:

The Mariners have made it a point to be front and center in their support of groups that oppose violence against women in any form.

The team runs a Refuse to Abuse campaign in which the Mariners Care Foundation, Verizon Wireless and the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence raise awareness and support victims of domestic violence. It’s a big reason why when Mariners relief pitcher Julio Mateo was arrested for beating his wife in a Manhattan hotel room during a team road trip in 2007, he never pitched for the big league club again.

Mateo was given counseling, resumed his career briefly in the minors, then was traded soon after.

So, it was a little tough to reconcile that team president Chuck Armstrong and CEO Howard Lincoln had signed off on Lueke being one of the four players in the trade package for Cliff Lee. Turns out, they hadn’t signed off knowing Lueke had pleaded no contest to the charge he did.

The Mariners front office is in a no-win situation here. If they new about the no-contest plea and made the trade, they look hypocritical. If they didn’t know and made the trade, they look incompetent. Now, it’s possible that Lueke was not guilty of the original rape charge, but the case against him was strong, and rather than face being found guilty of a more serious crime decided to plea bargain to get out of jail. The only truth we know is that he agreed not to fight a lesser charge. (The difference between guilty and no-contest is the way they effect civil suits.)

In the end, the Mariners front office looks bad in a year when many of their moves did not work. There was a lot of praise for Jack Zduriencik and the way he handled this franchise, but fans views of him may be moving away from that.