Report: Prince Fielder headed to Detroit

The Mariners had for a while now been considered a long-shot to land Prince Fielder, the top free agent still on the market, and as of today it appears they are officially out of the running.

Yahoo's Tim Brown reported a little while ago that Fielder will sign with Detroit and multiple reports have since followed backing that up. CBS Sports' Jon Heyman is reporting that the deal is worth $214 million over nine years. The surprise of this news isn't that the Mariners didn't land Fielder, but who did. Plenty of teams had been rumored at various times to be the front runners for Fielder, including, among other, Texas and Washington, but Detroit had never really been talked about as a possible destination.

And while Mariners fans may rightfully be upset that their team didn't land the biggest bat available, it is understandable why they wouldn't want to pay that kind of money. Fielder would certainly have made Seattle's lineup better, but the Mariners still have a lot of building to do to become legitimate contenders, and spending $214 million on one player may not be the most wise use of money. That won't however, excuse the Mariners losing if they don't spend more money elsewhere.