Brad Wilkerson, 4/19-4/29: .421/.476/.579
Brad Wilkerson, 4/30: Cut
Greg Norton, 4/13-4/27: .438/.500/.563
Greg Norton, 4/30: Cut
Richie Sexson, 6/2-7/8: .247/.370/.330
Richie Sexson, 7/10: Cut
Jose Vidro, 7/19-8/4: .340/.354/.489
Jose Vidro, 8/5: Cut
All four of these players were cut during what could be considered - for them - stretches of pretty good performance. Presumably this is because the Mariners (correctly) didn't believe said stretches accurately reflected any sort of improvement in the players' respective skillsets. Which makes you wonder why they waited so long to make each move if they were already planning on the DFAs ahead of time. If you're planning on letting someone go, and you're not going to let him change your mind with a stretch of inflated statistics, why wait? What purpose does that serve?
Ordinarily, when the Mariners keep a struggling player in the lineup, they'll justify it by saying they're trying to get the guy going. Don't believe their lies. Each of these four players "got it going" and still wound up out of a job. The Mariners have their reasons for why they do things, but don't think for a second that they'll ever let us know what they are. All we can really do as outsiders is guess.
At least their thought processes have recently been leading to some pretty good news. God, today rocks.