It’s not that I don’t appreciate what Kenji has done, but rather that I have no interest in having him on the roster for that insanely stupid price tag.

This is one of the best pieces of new the M’s have had in quite a while.

this leaves us with Moore and (maybe if he heals) Johnson as a catching tandem. And Wak, for whatever reason, fails to observe the sinkhole that is Johnson every time he approaches the plate, either with a bat or a mask. This decision makes us worse on the field, if better on the payroll.

No, it doesn’t make us worse on the field, because Johnson was going to be the main guy regardless. Nor does this leave us with Moore and Johnson as a catching tandem — Moore probably isn’t ready, and if you go up and look at crelsner’s post, you’ll see there are plenty of serviceable catchers out there who shouldn’t cost much, some of whom at least could probably give us roughly comparable production to what we would have been likely to get out of Kenji.

And finally, using homeless people as an analogy for this discussion is beneath this site.

Nobody was. Chill.

I do agree that I don’t think the Mariners can simply buy their way into the post-season.
The cash and free agents available just aren’t conducive to that approach, and it’s not the way a smart team operates.

What we can conclude is that this team has been very astute at acquiring quality players within a very limited budget, and I don’t think that approach is thrown out the window simply because a few more dollars show up.

we have a little more confidence in Zduriencik’s ability to spend $8M effectively

Should he just save this money for Felix in the future?

we have a little more confidence in Zduriencik’s ability to spend $8M effectively

Adam, I agree.

My point was for those who apparently think we should go out immediately and spend the cash on the best available free agent catcher.
If the money goes instead to more scouting or international free agents or cheaper beer at Safeco, fine. I just fear the knee jerk reaction of spend-it-now for someone who won’t serve us better than Kenji.

But then, as you say, it’s Z making the decision.

This helps things, but it still means Zduriencik isn’t going to be able to sign the Mariners into contention (unless management is willing to REALLY crank the budget up, which is dubious).

for those dancing on Kenji’s contractual grave, remember that this leaves us with Moore and (maybe if he heals) Johnson as a catching tandem. And Wak, for whatever reason, fails to observe the sinkhole that is Johnson every time he approaches the plate, either with a bat or a mask. This decision makes us worse on the field, if better on the payroll.

I think the reason everyone here is pretty gleeful is the fact that we have a little more confidence in Zduriencik’s ability to spend $8M effectively, then we do in Johjima’s ability to be worth $8M as a middle aged catcher coming off an injury plagued season.

Personally I don’t see a huge trade off in performance moving from Johjima to a Moore/Johjima/Catcher X situation. I think that whatever difference in production the Mariners suffer from losing Johjima, will be more then offset by the potential gains of a much more flexible payroll.