Mike Cameron and the Seattle Mariners have said the last few weeks that they’d like to work together again.
The Mariners’ free-agent center fielder repeated those words again Friday, but in his heart Cameron believes they represent only a hollow desire.
He doesn’t expect the Mariners to offer salary arbitration by Sunday’s 9 p.m. deadline, which would prohibit the team from negotiating with him until May 1 next year. If that happens, Cameron will be in someone else’s center field by then.
“I guess in the next 48 hours or so we’ll find out,” Cameron said Friday by phone from his home in McDonough, Ga. “I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
He has a feeling.
The Mariners made Cameron an offer believed to be substantially lower than the $7 million he made in 2003. He called it a sign of where he fits – or doesn’t – in the team’s structure for next year.
“I just thought what they offered wasn’t in the right parameters,” Cameron said. “It won’t take a blind man to see that they’re trying to make sure they stay in the parameters of what they’re trying to do.
“I want to make sure the team I’m with the next four years is a team that definitely is appreciative of my services.”
Cameron, who Mariners general manager Bill Bavasi said has received other offers, believes he would never get a four-year contract from the Mariners. He doubts any high-profile player the Mariners might be pursuing – shortstops Kazuo Matsui and Miguel Tejada have been the most often mentioned – should expect anything beyond a three-year offer from the M’s.
“How long did (Ken Griffey) Junior play here, and did he ever get more than three years?” Cameron asked. “What about Randy (Johnson), did he ever get more than three?”
Knowing the answer is no, Cameron will wait out the next two days before learning if he’ll continue to shop for another team for the first time in his career.
Cameron played for the Chicago White Sox and Cincinnati Reds before coming to Seattle in the Griffey trade before the 2000 season.
“This is my first time dealing with this kind of stuff,” he said. “I’m trying to be as calm as possible about it. It’s been kind of mind-boggling.
“It’s a process. I wish things would work out for the best, but I really don’t know what’s going to happen. I’m having the same questions as everybody about this.”
Cameron said he isn’t feeling any stress over it.
“The next 48 hours will be cool for me,” he said Friday. “I’m going to see a game at my high school tonight, I’m watching my son play ball tomorrow, and then I get to see (Atlanta Falcons quarterback) Michael Vick play on Sunday. I don’t have any stress. Whatever happens will happen for a reason.”
There aren’t quite as many doubts over the other two free agents the Mariners have tried to re-sign, relief pitchers Shigetoshi Hasegawa and Arthur Rhodes. The team has made offers to both players, and Hasegawa’s agent, Greg Clifton, made a counter-offer Thursday.
Hasegawa is the only player Bavasi said the team has made progress with.
“With Shiggy, yes,” Bavasi said. “With Cameron and Rhodes, that’s more difficult. They’ve got several offers.”
Even if one of their free agents ends up signing with another team, the Mariners would receive a draft pick as compensation if they offer arbitration. If contract agreements can’t be worked out before Sunday’s deadline, the Mariners may decide to offer arbitration to Hasegawa and Rhodes, Bavasi said.
“There’s some inclination there,” he said. “But we’ve still got until Sunday to decide.”
The Mariners aren’t expected to offer arbitration to their other four free agents – relief pitcher Armando Benitez, and utility players Mark McLemore, John Mabry and Rey Sanchez.
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