Wilson re-signs
Dave · December 7, 2004 at 4:04 pm · Filed Under Mariners
The Mariners re-signed Dan Wilson today. One year contract, dollars not disclosed, but it is believed to be worth around $2 million. We’ll give an exact figure once we get our hands on one.
Update: 1 year, $1.75 million. Considering it was basically inevitable that he was coming back, this is really a best case scenario.
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77 Responses to “Wilson re-signs”
The Red Sox offered Mike Myers arbitration?? Gads. He sucked as a Red Sock.
Alright jj,
I never said I was crazy about the A’s fan base, but I question that the reason that the A’s don’t draw very big crowds is because the faces are always changing in Oakland. I have heard they want to move to San Jose, where they have good crowds for their hockey team, so this makes me think management doesn’t believe this is the problem either. I’m not familiar enough with Oakland’s situation to know what cause their poor attendance, but I feel Seattle baseball would have experience the same popularity in recent years if the A’s were in Seattle instead of the M’s. Think about all the ‘beloved’ players we have lost in Griffey, A-Rod, and the Unit, almost as many as he A’s.
We should note too that the A’s/M’s have two entirely different sets of goals for building an on-field team. The A’s, in essence, give Beane a budget and let him loose. If he wins the division, that’s great. If he fielded bad teams, so be it. They’re super happy they have him, because he’s done so well on that budget, but realistically if he came back one year having a record like the M’s did in 2004 and said “look, I did everything I could, and it didn’t work out” they’re not going to fire him.
The M’s, by contrast, are willing to spend three times as much to (they hope) eliminate that possibility. They never want to have the year they had in 2004. If they could spend $80m and be guaranteed a winning season, satisfied fans, but no playoff berth, they’d take that every year.
Beane’s able to totally ignore fan reaction to trades is the result of a totally different set of instructions. If Beane was here and given the same set of instructions Seattle GMs have to work under, he’d have brought back Wilson for this season too, I suspect. With the M’s budget, fighting the ownership over $2m isn’t important enough — you want to argue with them over ponying up for Beltre.
This is what the Seattle Mariners should do:
1. Trade starting pitcher Ryan Franklin, relief pitcher Shigetoshi Hasegawa, catcher Wiki Gonzalez, first baseman Scott Spiezio, center fielder Randy Winn and left fielder Raul Ibanez to the Los Angeles Dodgers for relief pitcher Darren Dreifort.
2. Re-sign starting pitcher Ron Villone to a one-year contract worth $2 million.
3. Exercise the team option on outfielder Jolbert Cabrera, which is for one-year and is worth $1.5 million.
4. Designate relief pitcher Aaron Looper for assignment; re-sign relief pitcher Aaron Looper to a minor-league contract.
5. Sign third baseman Adrian Beltre to a five-year contract worth $75 million.
6. Sign designated hitter Carlos Delgado to a three-year contract worth $24 million.
7. Sign first baseman Richie Sexon to a three-year contract worht $15 million.
8. Find corner infielder Jeff Cirillo and make him earn the $4,750,000 that is owed to him.
9. Go to arbitration with starting pitcher Gil Meche.
ROTATION
Starting Pitcher: Jamie Moyer {$7,500,000}
Starting Pitcher: Joel Piñeiro {$4,200,000}
Starting Pitcher: Bobby Madritsch {~$325,000}
Starting Pitcher: Ron Villone {$2,000,000}
Starting Pitcher: Gil Meche {~$2,500,000}
BULLPEN
Lefty Specialist: George Sherrill {~$325,000}
Long Reliever: Scott Atchison {~$325,000}
Middle Reliever: J.J. Putz {~$325,000}
Middle Reliever: Julio Mateo {~$350,000}
Setup Man: Darren Dreifort {$13,000,000}
Closing Pitcher: Eddie Guardado {$4,500,000}
LINEUP
Right Fielder: Ichiro Suzuki {$10,500,000}
Left Fielder: Jeremy Reed {~$325,000}
Third Baseman: Adrian Beltre {$13,000,000}
Designated Hitter: Carlos Delgado {$7,000,000}
Second Baseman: Bret Boone {$9,000,000}
First Baseman: Richie Sexson {$4,000,000}
Shortstop: Jose Lopez {~$325,000}
Catcher: Miguel Olivo {~$350,000}
Center Fielder: Jamal Strong {~$325,000}
BENCH
Catcher: Dan Wilson {$1,750,000}
Corner Infielder: Jeff Cirillo {$4,750,000}
Middle Infielder: Willie Bloomquist {~$900,000}
Outfielder: Jolbert Cabrera {$1,500,000}
Designated Hitter: Bucky Jacobsen {~$325,000}
INACTIVE (40-MAN ROSTER)
Starting Pitcher: Clint Nageotte {$50,000}
Starting Pitcher: Travis Blackley {$50,000}
Starting Pitcher: Cha-Seung Baek {$50,000}
Starting Pitcher: Matt Thornton {$50,000}
Starting Pitcher: Rett Johnson {$50,000}
Setup Man: Rafael Soriano {$50,000}
Closing Pitcher: Aaron Taylor {$50,000}
Catcher: Rene Rivera {$50,000}
Second Baseman: Luis Ugueto {$50,000}
Shortstop: Mike Morse {$50,000}
Third Baseman: Greg Dobbs {$50,000}
Right Fielder: Shin-soo Choo {$50,000}
Center Fielder: Wladimir Balentein {$50,000}
Left Fielder: Chris Snelling {$50,000}
Designated Hitter: Justin Leone {$50,000}
Can we really say we “lost” any of those players. They all left on their own terms. None of the big three wanted to stay for whatever reason, in fact, we offered Griffey and Alex pretty good deals (although, not the unreasonable $252M).
Is it possible the fans rooted for the new guys out of spite? All 3 of those guys left on edgy terms. Randy pitched like crap until he was traded…Griffey forced a trade to Cincy…and A-Rod was greedy – but who can really blame him for likely setting his family up for generations to come? I think we feel betrayed because his PR reasons for leaving didn’t match the truth. Anyway, this is getting off topic…
Grant, I am not expert. But faces change often in Oakland is in my opinion not the issue. Davis ruined the stadium for his football team and Oakland is not exactly the place where people have extra money to burn. We are talking about a city that has not fixed the bay bridge after the 1989 earthquake. The San Jose rumor was done and dead for quite some time. Giants had blocked that deal. Fremont was another location they have been talking about. This is a team that raised playoff tickets price so high that the stadium was half empty. I pretty much walked in there without buying tickets in advance last year.
And in case you are wondering, I live five months in Bay area and the rest up here for the past ten years. And I can tell you both Dave and Derek’s comments on right on the money.
Re #54:
Why would the Dodgers take our whole stinkin’ team for Dreifort?
There is such thing as TOO much…
They would hopefully take all of our underachieving players as a means to stable the trade from a financial standpoint, as well as give them a multitude of servicable players to have on their roster; the Dodgers aren’t exactly known as an offensive team, so players like Randy and Raul ought to help them.
My personal ideer for the ideal offseason:
If it is true that TB is shopping Huff and Lugo, I would love to acquire them. Lugo can backup at 2nd, Short, Left, and Centre. He can be the veteran backup shortstop in the event Lopez stinks.
1. Decline Jolbert Cabrera’s option (we don’t need him if we get Lugo)
2. Trade Blackley/Nageotte, Julio Mateo, Justin Leone, and a choice of 2 of the following:
1. Bloomquist
2. Santiago
3. Dobbs
4. Ugueto
5. Baek
6. Taylor
7. Rivera
8. Strong
Howard Lincoln after only signing one big bat, “Dan Wilson ate our cookies. We wanted to sign another big bat, we just didn’t have the cash. Wilson and Vilone(assuming he’s resigned)were a huge priority to us, proven, veteran leadership”
I don’t think Randy Winn is better than anyone in the Dodgers OF…I mean, they moved Shawn Green to 1B because of the OF talent.
Although, Winn does likely get arrested less! 😉
As poor as Cabrera is in regards to getting on-base, he is nevertheless a good fourth outfielder and pinch runner, so Seattle might as well keep him. Secondly, why trade for either Huff — who is overpaid — or Lugo — who isn’t that talented — since they are players that can be found fairly easily at a lower cost. Lastly, why trade any of our young players?
Re # 14 and # 16: So I guess the signing of WILSON fills up our 40-man roster.
So unless something happens before Monday, we just spectate at the Rule 5 Draft.
And when the M’s are done with all that, they should spend $12.43 to build a direct monorail line from Derek’s house to Safeco Field…
It’s better to have one roster spot being eaten alive by a bad contract than to have six roster spots being consumed by dead money. Paul DePodesta knows this.
Yeah, obviously DePodesta — who is of the Beane-era of baseball management — would most likely not trade a financial asset like Dreifort — who’s huge contract is up at the end of the year — for a bunch of under-achieving stiffs [Franklin; Hasegawa; Gonzalez; Spiezio; Winn; Ibanez], but it is a nice thing to imagine. As it is, the Bavasi/Evans/Bowles triad would probably veto such an idea anyhow, given that it doesn’t fit in with their ideological stance.
If you look at the numbers Lugo, Cabrera, and Renteria are virtually clones of each other, and all three play good defense. I agree that we should try to get Huff and Lugo, I don’t know Huff salary, but I really doubt he is over paid since he hasn’t been an FA yet and he put up a .853 OPS last year
“Lastly, why trade any of our young players?”
To get talent you have to give talent. All of our talent is young.
Huff is due $4.5 million in 2005 and $7.5 million in 2006; the Devil Rays are almost worse when it comes to monetary management — and they have a miniscule payroll — than the Mariners.
Yeah, but right now it is better to see if our young talent will pan out, rather than trading it for other team’s young talent that is most likely of equal value…the trades I would attempt to make would be done specifically for financial purposes.
In my mind, a .300 hitting 30 HR a year player who is fairly versatile is worth 4.5 this year. We are clearing up so much payroll in ’06 we can afford the hit.
JJ is right. Basically Oakland is a footbal town even though the players change a lot too. Even as a kid, I don’t remember many people going to see the A’s. The area is also poor to middle class so I think people would rather spend what they have on something else (i.e., Raiders or pizza).
Oakland has a history of not drawing well- the 1970’s A’s didn’t draw flies, either. The LaRussa A’s did OK, but nothing special, and note that was while the Raiders were in LA. The Oakland “Mausoleum” is a rotten baseball park (and it was redesigned when Davis brought the Raiders back to be even less of a baseball park), in a bad neighborhood, with a team that regularly dumps their star players out of necessity, which leads to poor attendance, which leads to dumping stars, which leads…
Getting back on track…note that Wilson the last few years has started strong and faded really badly (.789 OPS in April). It’s POSSIBLE less use might improve him. And don’t forget he’s Jamie’s caddy.
Did Vallone get offered arbitration? I assume he did. Were there any non tenders of interest? I heard Glaus was non tendered.
I know you guys want the Mariners to win a title. I do also. But it is NOT going to happen next year. Because of that, a one year deal for Wilson – a fan favorite; I love him, my mom loves him, everybody loves him – then a huge payout to Beltran or Beltre, is a good strategy. Tie us over until we can compete – in 2006.
AK1984: Care to explain why a lefthanded slugger entering his prime years, who posted OPS of .884, .922, and .853 in his past 3 years isn’t worth $4.5 million this year and $7.5 the year after?
You’ve got a weird idea of what constitutes poor financial planning. Good luck with the 3 year, $24 million offer to Delgado. I’d take Huff in a heartbeat.
#16- FWIW, Benny Looper recuses himself when decisions are made re: Aaron (see all his promotions, and the trade to LA)
#24- *Melvin* acted ‘like poison’ to Ben Davis? Have you looked at the man’s catching career to-date? You’d have to say Bochy & Guillen were poisonous as well….
#59- On the availability of Tampa players, from the Tampa Tribune: “Apparently, someone misinterpreted an attempt at subtlety by LaMar during the GM meetings last month in Key Biscayne. Although LaMar said he merely indicated to other GMs that Huff, SS Julio Lugo, RHP Danys Baez, RF Jose Cruz Jr. and C Toby Hall were not untouchable in potential trades, it was reported on ESPN.com that the Rays were actively “shopping” those players in order to dump salary.
“We’re not shopping any of them, per se,” LaMar said. “However, depending on who we got back — a good young player or two — we would have to listen. … There’s interest in those players. But as of right now, I expect all of those players to be on our roster.”
With respect to the Oakland Coliseum, there’s also the competition factor. Oakland is a football town; you will see a lot more Black & Silver apparel walking around, but rarely A’s green and gold.
In the days when the Giants played at Candlestick one could argue that a game at the Coliseum was a more pleasant experience than freezing in the wind at the ‘Stick. Now that the Giants have a great new ballpark that’s easily accessible, there’s really little reason to trek out to Oakland for a game.
The Coliseum was built in 1969, and really shows its age. I’ve seen nicer minor league ballparks (PGE Park in Portland comes to mind). Went to an A’s game last May and it had something of a minor league feel to it — they blew tee-shirts up into the stands like they do at Aquasox games sometimes. And the 2004 player guide seemed to focus on the A’s management more than the players. It was sad.