Roster Moves
Dave · November 3, 2010 at 12:39 pm · Filed Under Mariners
As expected, the M’s declined all three of their options today, letting Erik Bedard and Russ Branyan become free agents and choosing to make Jose Lopez arbitration eligible rather than pay him $4.5 million for 2011.
In addition, they also outrighted Ryan Langerhans, Guillermo Quiroz, Ryan Feierabend, Chris Seddon, and Sean White off the 40 man roster. All five can choose to become free agents or accept the assignment to Tacoma, in which case they would be non-roster invitees to spring training.
Finally, Brian Sweeney was claimed on waivers by the Diamondbacks.
Are they likely to make offers to Bedard and Branyan?
Hm. I see nothing to scream or complain about here.
Vaguely satisfying seeing all those names go away, regardless of past potential and contributions. Let’s see some fresh blood in the ol’ arteries.
I wonder what the Ms could get for Lopez this month. Yet more bullpen depth? 4th outfielder? Backup catcher? A bag of extra chalk for the baselines?
It would really make me happy if I never saw Sean White in a Mariner uniform again.
What possible reason would any of them accept an assignment to Tacoma instead of becoming free agents?
Is it totally insane that I’m more interested in the continued development of our system than reaching .500 again next season? Let Bedard and Branyan go or resign them super cheap with a lot of incentives, trade Lopez or non-tender him, and let the rest go. I don’t want to see those guys in AAA (except maybe Langerhans) blocking AA guys from progressing. Maybe that’s silly of me, but it’s what I think.
If the M’s can get a relief arm or quasi-respectable A-level prospect for Lopez, it’s a net win.
I wouldn’t mind if Bedard and Branyan came back on appropriate contracts, but like probably everyone else here, I don’t think there is a name on this list that couldn’t be readily replaced by a smart GM.
I think replacing a healthy Bedard (a quasi-mythical creature, to be sure) is not so easy. I’d be happy to see the M’s offer him a contract with almost no base but significant performance-based incentives.
I also realize that’s not exactly original thinking. 😀
Dave, are you sure about Feierabend? I don’t think he’s ever been outrighted before, and as such, he would have to accept this outright assignment according to MLB rules. If he was outrighted again in a future season, he could choose free agency.
(I’m not completely sure about Seddon, but his history is a bit more murky having been in another organization before the M’s).
Yay to no more Sean White, please decline your assignment to Tacoma!
That, if they’re going to be replacement level or below talent and play in the minors, they may as well stay some place they know?
Can someone explain why we dumped Langerhans? He seems like a good 4th outfielder- good glove, lefty, took a walk, wasn’t getting paid much.
Lopez is one of those guys who will go off for any other team but with the M’s he’s just Lopez.
Mostly because Langerhans was going to be arbitration-eligible and thus due a raise if we kept him. Of course, most thought that he would be non-tendered in early December by the deadline to offer players a contract for 2011 who weren’t already under contract.
So, I think outrighting him and allowing him to choose free agency(which he will) gives him an early start at finding a team for next season, since the M’s would’ve pretty clearly non-tendered him anyway. This allows the M’s to free up necessary room on the 40-man roster which they’ll need as the prepare for the Rule 5 draft and for signing players this offseason as well.
(And, if he doesn’t find any other job soon, the M’s can offer him a minor league contract and maybe he makes the team next year out of spring training anyway. 😉
Should the Mariners look at Jhonny Peralta for SS (if able to get rid of Wilson or use him as a back up), Yorvit Torrealba as a back up to Moore, and Jon Garland to fill in either the three or four spot?
I would also like to pursue Vladimir Guerrero, and a trade for Ben Zobrist.
You want to give our second round draft pick AND a sandwich pick to our rival? Really? For an aging DH? Really?
I am completely aware of the need for offense on this team, so I don’t want to get my head bitten off for what I am about to say. I wouldn’t mind throwing some money at Jorge De La Rosa. This rotation will be less then stellar if we do not address it in some sort of fashion. This offense is not going to be the best offense in the league after one off season. De La Rosa could potentially be a main stay. As for the offense, we will have lots and lots of positions filled up by a Saunders, Ackley, possibly Matt Mangini (not likely), and Smoak. So this offense will struggle. I do know that we need to pick up some bats, but it would not hurt to gain some pitching while we are at it. Another previous suggestion of mine, was to attempt to trade for Ricky Nolasco.
Very sorry about that, i had been mulling over the fact that we did not pick up Guerrero last off season, and wrote his name down haha. I meant to put down a fellow Texas Ranger, Hank Blalock for DH.
Every one of them probably should accept an assignment to Tacoma. The Mariners are going to be bad in 2011, which greatly improves a Triple-A player’s chance of being called up.
Would the M’s lose a pick if they signed a Type A or Type B free agent? I thought the bottom five teams (and we’re second from the bottom) don’t lose picks.
If they sign a Type A, they would lose their second-round pick.
If they sign a Type B, a pick is never forfeited.
…at least, that is my understanding.
The Mariners are among the teams that exempt from losing draft picks by signing free agents.
Edit: Nevermind, I see that was already brought up.
Correct.
The first 15 picks are protected; i.e. can’t be lost be signing FA’s. So a team that finishes with one of the 15 worst records in baseball gives up their 2nd rounder if they sign a type A. A team in the top half gives up their 1st rounder for an A.
For a B, no pick is lost by any signing team.
For both A and B FA’s a sandwich pick between rounds 1 and 2 is created and awarded to the team losing the player
Losing a second-round draft pick isn’t something a team in rebuild mode would want, and that’s what we would lose if we sign a Type A free agent. Our best bet is to sign Type B guys/develop from within, currently.
These moves are OK, but while Dave explained it beautifully in his “Jose Lopez’s Option” article, I will be uneasy as long as Lopez is still on the team.
The M’s big problem these past 7? years of suckitude has been underachieving, and while he might not be the cause of it, Jose Lopez seems to be the very embodiment of an “underachiever”.
There is always some crazy talk of veteran presence, or bunk like change of A (position, lineup spot, color of socks, etc.) will help him miraculously perform again, etc. and FO or managers who are eager to eat it up.
I will not be easy in the mind until Lopie is safely off the team.
Kotchman also.
Too old for the money, although I’m not sure about draft pick losses incurred…and good luck.
Trading with the Tampa Bay Rays is inordinately difficult, and always with a steep price.
They’re like the car dealer that has several manual-transmission Audis and knows how much those who like Audis want them. Subsequently, they don’t budge off of very steep price tags.
Ben Zobrist isn’t going anywhere.
You might however, be able to get Jasnn Bartlett for a not-unreasonable price given the Rays cost-cutting measures and the presence of a viable cheaper replacement in Reid Brignac (who is also not going to be traded BTW…)
Vlad will not be offered arbitration and if he is he is smart enough to accept.
I like the trading for Bartlett and signing Vlad track of thinking. Vlad and Berkman are the DH’s Z should target for sure.
Vlad and Berkman are the DH’s Z should target for sure.
How about Hideki Matsui who hits left handed, had a decent second half for the Angels, and would be significantly more affordable than either one of these two veterans.
Let’s get Jeter! Can’t be worse than JWs, and deny the Yank fans the opportunity to see him get 3000 hits as a Yankee.
(Insert diabolical laughter here)
I like the idea of trading for Bartlett. As for signing Vlad, two points: (a) Google “buying high,” and (b) why in the heck would he want to go from playing in a great hitter’s park and playing in a World Series, having resurrected his career, to playing for the 2011 Mariners? Even if it was possible due to the Mariners overpaying, that would exacerbate what is already likely to be a high price tag for him.
The amount we would have to overpay a veteran DH to come to a 100-loss team that plays in a horrible ballpark for hitting stats would soak up the budget for all the other problems with the 2011 Mariner roster. So no to Vlad/Berkman/Matsui.
Is there a particular reason we have to sign a player to play 130 games at DH, anyway? I’d argue we don’t, really, and that this roster would be better off with a Luke Scott-type player (who could credibly play 1B or LF if Saunders or Smoak turn out to be problematic for one reason or another), as well as having the ability to use the DH spot to “rest” players without taking a huge defensive hit.
We can’t Jose Lopez go!
That’s our clean up hitter!
A fulltime DH wouldnt be needed if some offense could be added in other places but with this team having RF, CF, SS, 1st, C, and either 2nd/3rd (Figgins) plus LF (Saunders) filled it doesnt leave much. Normally you arent going to find a whole lot of offense at 2nd so do they keep Figgins at 2nd and add a good bat at 3rd?
Like the Luke Scott idea but looks like still need another bat UNLESS all the young guys have a sharp improvement next year.
How about also adding Omar Vizquel to back up all the guys??? He still has some game in him and does provide offense when filling in???
This team also needs a fourth outfielder that is capable of filling CF and LF AND not losing anything offensively or defensively. Any ideas????
A fulltime DH wouldnt be needed if some offense could be added in other places but with this team having RF, CF, SS, 1st, C, and either 2nd/3rd (Figgins) plus LF (Saunders) filled it doesnt leave much
Mariner 1B OPS’ed .651 last year. You don’t think a full year of Smoak could improve on that?
Mariner DH’s OPS’ed .609 last year. You don’t think we could find a competent defensive playe at a corner position who can beat that?
The entire Mariner infield OPS’ed .604 last year. You don’t think we can improve that a notch?
Getting that from disastrous to bad would mean a fair amount of additional wins, don’t you think?
Well, GMJZ sure thinks we can!
Hot off the presses:
Casey Kotchmann has been outrighted off the M’s 40-man roster and refused the assignment. He will be a free agent.
I guess GMJZ couldn’t wait until December to non-tender him. 😉
I don’t think I’d mind seeing Matt Magini platoon at DH with someone. I seem to recall he has a large platoon split, and if we can find someone with who kills lefties we might do pretty well for ourselves at DH with them.
Things aren’t great, but they’re not bad enough that Matt Mangini should be a serious consideration for significant playing time at DH.
eponymous coward: EVERY year I expect this team to do better than the previous year. Smoak is going to be a good hitter, Ackley is going to be a good hitter, Figgins will probably hit closer to a couple years ago than last year but that wasnt what I was getting at. What the Mariners look like now would indicate that there is very little room to add an everyday player other than at DH. Granted IF they find a SS or trade someone like Figgins or decide that Saunders or Moore arent ready then a replacement might be better But that seems to go against everything mentioned so far about playing the youngins and how hard it would be replace Wilson or for that matter Bradley. Seems like it will come down to making the bench as solid as possible to augment the weaknesses in the starting nine.
Just getting rid of Lopez should raise the OPS for the infield by 100 points!!!
Something tells me Eric Hinske’s coming to Seattle.
What the Mariners look like now would indicate that there is very little room to add an everyday player other than at DH.
Right, but the idea that we need some declining, expensive veteran to play 130 games at DH when the roster needs work in a LOT of places doesn’t follow. The infield has issues (Ackley may not be ready, the Wilson non-twins are completely inadequate options at SS, where Figgins goes depends somewhat on these factors, catcher is a complete disaster), and you have to figure there’s a decent chance one of Smoak/Saunders will be somewhat of a disappointment in 2011.
In that environment, having a player who isn’t locked into the DH slot would be helpful (aside from the problem that the classic power hitter DHs are likely to be too expensive). I’d be willing to sacrifice a bit of offense for a player who you could play in the field without it killing you, especially since getting a DH who can OPS .750 (and would be a huge improvement on 2010) shouldn’t be rocket science.
As it turns out, Ryan Feierabend, Chris Seddon, and *gasp* Sean White were all outrighted to Tacoma.
Feierabend and Seddon, as I mentioned above, had never been outrighted before(I wasn’t sure on Seddon, but it turns out that he wasn’t), so they had to accept the outright assignement. At least they’re not on the 40-man roster.
White had been outrighted before, and he accepted the assignment anyway. Perhaps he knows that the talent level of the M’s isn’t very deep right now–much like his own talent level. He probably accepted because he figures he has a better chance at contributing to this organization again in the future than he does to another organizaition.
Ryan Langerhans and Guillermo Quiroz both chose free agency. Quiroz is a AAAA type player, so I see him getting a minor league contract from another organization. He’s not much better than Rob Johnson, who we already have.
Langerhans could get an MLB deal from someone, but if he doesn’t, I could see the M’s offering him a minor league contract.