M’s Re-Sign Iwakuma
As expected, the Mariners have re-signed Hisashi Iwakuma to a two year deal with an option for a third year. Financial details aren’t out yet, but it’s not going to be a ton of money. He wanted to stay, he knew Safeco helped him out last year, and the free agent market isn’t super kind to starters with a history of shoulder problems who gave up a lot of homers while pitching in a homer suppressing park. Expect somewhere between $6-$8 million per year.
That knocks one rotation spot off the list, and leaves the team with just one starting spot left behind Felix, Iwakuma, Vargas, and Ramirez. I wouldn’t be surprised if they brought in another starter to replace Millwood/Beavan, but don’t expect it to be a big ticket guy. Most of the spending this winter — after this move, anyway — is going to be on the offense.
Update: Jon Heyman has the financials – $14 million guaranteed, with annual salaries of $6.5 million in 2013/2014, then a 2015 option for $7 million with a $1 million buyout. So it’s either 2/14 or 3/20. Basically, right in line with what we expected.
Great move. Good start to the offseason!
A good first move of this offseason, I’d think!
Now let’s hurry up and get some news about an extension for Felix being finalized…
That is good to hear. Not a huge move but important.
When will they be announcing the straight-up Chone Figgins for Prince Fielder trade?
Great! Bring on some offense now.
Great job Z! Even if they do bring back Beavan, that’s not a horrible thing considering he’d be a bridge to get to Paxton or Hultzen. I’d rather allocate that money into the offense then going looking for another 4-5 back end starter, unless it was a Kevin Millwood type contract situation. There aren’t a lot of those out there. Beavan is cheap. The Big Three isn’t far off. Let’s focus on offense now first.
Finally, some good, relevant news!
Beavan is terrible. You shouldn’t be satisfied with terrible. You should want to upgrade on terrible.
What do you guys think about the Angels letting Haren go? They must be re-signing Grienke now one would think?
Furbush? I thought Vasquez was terrible, thereby making Beaven terrible plus…
Great news. Do we know for sure that Vargas will be resigned?
Agreed. Beavan was pretty bad. He was also pretty cheap too. I would like to see the Mariners definitely upgrade the back end of the rotation. Let’s see if they actually do.
Vargas is in Arb-3 status. He’s a Mariner next year unless the team gets rid of him. The question is going to be how much they sign him for, or if they non-tender him.
Good signing. He has a chance to be worth more than that, and the option is very team-friendly.
Beavan is replacement level and as such is the biggest hole on the roster. If you think Carp can make 1.0 WAR at 1B, and Casper can put up 1-2 WAR in a corner, the M’s have no replacement level position players who figure to get starting time. Beavan right now figures to get starting time.
I actually wouldn’t object at all to a big acquisition to replace Beavan. In fact, I outright desire it. That SP slot being the biggest hole on the roster means that, for any given amount of cash, the Mariners can get a bigger upgrade by spending it on a starter than by spending it on a hitter. We should all want the Mariners to get big upgrades, right?
If Baker and Johns are right and Z is going to have more payroll in 2013 than in 2012, he’s got around $20M left. Bump it up a little, or trade Gutierrez, and you could pretty easily fit both a big ticket hitter like Swisher and a mid-upper range starter like Jackson. Haren actually interests me as a buy-low candidate; I’m shocked that the guy posted 6 WAR just last year and now no one’s willing to part with a reliever to get him for one year at $15M.
If we’re playing the “no big trades, free agents only” game, which I think is silly but whatever, the Mariners very reasonably have the payroll space to add Swisher, Cabrera and Haren (or Jackson, or McCarthy, or any $10M starter) presuming they can find someone to take Guti’s contract.
Beavan is replacement level and as such is the biggest hole on the roster. If you think Carp can make 1.0 WAR at 1B, and Casper can put up 1-2 WAR in a corner, the M’s have no replacement level position players who figure to get starting time. Beavan right now figures to get starting time.
I actually wouldn’t object at all to a big acquisition to replace Beavan. In fact, I outright desire it. That SP slot being the biggest hole on the roster means that, for any given amount of cash, the Mariners can get a bigger upgrade by spending it on a starter than by spending it on a hitter. We should all want the Mariners to get big upgrades, right?
If Baker and Johns are right and Z is going to have more payroll in 2013 than in 2012, he’s got around $20M left. Bump it up a little, or trade Gutierrez, and you could pretty easily fit both a big ticket hitter like Swisher and a mid-upper range starter like Jackson. Haren actually interests me as a buy-low candidate; I’m shocked that the guy posted 6 WAR just last year and now no one’s willing to part with a reliever to get him for one year at $15M.
If we’re playing the “no big trades, free agents only” game, which I think is silly but whatever, the Mariners very reasonably have the payroll space to add Swisher, Cabrera and Haren (or Jackson, or McCarthy, or any $10M starter) presuming they can find someone to take Guti’s contract.
Beavan is so bad. Sure, it might not be the end of the world if he is the 5th starter, but seriously, I sure as hell am not hoping for it. If I get the option to have a horrible 5th starter or a not so bad 5th starter, well I don’t want Beavan. Every time Beavan starts a game I will complain on the internet!
—— Beavan is terrible. You shouldn’t be satisfied with terrible. You should want to upgrade on terrible.
Yeah, but he is in the best shape of his life and working on a new pitch.
Snarky condescension.
Wilhelmsen and Figgins for Haren? It would be more value than Marmol would give the Angels, and I think less money.
. . . OK, no, I missed that Haren’s now a FA.
That’s a lot of money for a guy who wasn’t even good enough to start at the beginning of last season.
Moving in the Safeco fences? Check.
Signing Iwakuma to an extension? Check.
So far so good M’s!
The Twins non-tendered Scott Baker. I’d be very interested in him if Jack could get him at a low guaranteed money (maybe with incentives) to see if he can shake off his injury bug. He is mighty effective when right.
Tom Whilhelmsen should get a look for SP#5. If he masters the change like he has the curve he would easily be a mid – rotation guy. We have a lot of young arms in the pen and even one or two of the ” BIG THREE” could be brought up to be eased into the show by getting some time as a reliever.
I love this move.
I echo Longgeorge’s question. Could Wilhelmsen be CJ Wilson part 2? With all of the cheap bullpen talent, it seems like it would be worthwhile to try and transfer some of that talent to SP . . .
We have lots of options for the fifth starting position. There’s not much reason to fiddle with Wilhelmsen at this point in his career. Changing him to a starter would require time and would disrupt our current bullpen situation. Plus there’s no guarantee he could pull it off. Better to just leave things as they are and not Morrow the situation.
I know bullpens are fluid, fungible things, and straightforward to build quickly and cheaply… but I do not for the life of me understand the turn-Bartender-into-a-starter thing. He’s a perfectly good closer. 5th starter options are abundant.
Actually, lots of starter options are abundant in general. I’d love to see the M’s invest in some premium starting pitching along with the expected offense upgrades. Injury, suckiness or opportunistic trading could make plenty of room for part of Cerberus, or whoever else is promising, when the time’s right for them later.
I’d be the most dismayed to see another Millwood type brought in. No more bargain basement shopping, please, Z. You can do better than Beavan easily… but you can do better than Millwood too.
I understand that transitioning Wilhelmsen back to an SP leaves a a question mark at closer, but he seems to have so much more to offer (as far as pitch options) than the avg. closer comes with and Jack Z seems to find quality relievers everywhere.
Re: our offense, it would be nice to find some guys who know how to get on base. Our OBP as a team is ridiculous. The Giants didn’t have a bunch of big offensive numbers but they had 6 guys with OBP over .330 (seven if you count Cabrera). The Mariners had one….John Jaso….who wasn’t even a regular starter because Wedge couldn’t figure out the value he had in Jaso until the year was half over.
Jack Z has already started to address the team OBP situation – he declined Olivo’s option.
Looks like Oliver Perez is resigned. Should be nice to have in the bullpen again.
I agree that Wilhelmsen should be left in the BP if his upside as a SP is a 5th starter. The hope is that with his pitch repertoire he could be a legitimate #3 type, which should have more value than an elite closer. Duly noted on the concerns to not turn this into another Morrow situation.
I wouldn’t have spent 1.5 million on Oliver Perez. No way, no how. Valuable scrap heap pickups don’t make good bets when you’re paying retail. Especially not for the eleventh guy on a pitching staff.
At $1.5 mil all he has to do is put up about 1/5 of a WAR. Hardly a huge loss if he doesn’t reach it . . .
League minimum is $500K. You really think $1 million over the minimum is “retail” for a left-handed reliever who throws 94 and was good last year? Did you just see what Brandon League signed for?
Complaining about Oliver Perez’s contract is the height of absurdity.
Okay. I’m wrong. Not the first time.
My reasoning, flawed as it may be:
1) Perez is not a particularly good bet going forward. Was good last year, for the first time in several…
2) Arguably, Perez isn’t one of the several best relievers the M’s control. Wilhelmson, Capps, Pryor, Furbush, Kelley, Luetge, etc. (I probably overrated Luetge because his success was a surprise).
3) The M’s need to marshall every dollar for Offense. maybe they don’t – budget flexibility is an unknown to outsiders.
It’s also hard to remember that a million dollars extra is a rounding error for these guys. It was enough to get Iwakuma last year!
I don’t think you think believe you’re wrong, bookbook. Call it a hunch.
Actually, Typical, the point that $1 million is nothing to get worked up about in this context is valid and important. I overreacted.