M’s make a deal

SEATTLE — Knowing his name was appearing prominently in trade rumors since Friday, Seattle Mariners pitcher Doug Fister did his best to stay away from the radio and Internet.

What he couldn’t ignore about 7:30 Saturday morning was the constant buzzing of his phone.

“That’s when the texts started, and it hasn’t stopped,” Fister said.

By mid-morning, he learned officially from the Mariners what had been buzzing online — and on his phone. The Mariners had traded him and right-handed relief pitcher David Pauley to the Detroit Tigers in exchange for four young players.

In their second trade in two days, the Mariners acquired left-handed pitcher Charlie Furbush, minor league third baseman Francisco Martinez, minor league outfielder Casper Wells and a player to be named later from the Tigers.

General manager Jack Zduriencik, continuing to make deals to acquire young players, insisted that the fourth player from the Tigers would be a bona-fide prospect. He said the Mariners will choose from among three Tigers prospects within three weeks.

“This is not a throw-in,” Zduriencik said. “We like all three guys.”

Friday, the Mariners traded minor league outfielder Ryan Langerhans to the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for cash considerations.

Baseball’s non-waiver trade deadline is 1 p.m. (PDT) today, and Zduriencik said only that he continued to talk with other teams.

“There are a lot of teams with a lot on the table,” he said. “Some things fall through. They might call us. Meanwhile, we’re having our own talks.”

The plumb of Saturday’s deal, according to experts, is the 20-year-old Martinez. He batted .282 with seven home runs and 46 RBI at Class AA Erie and played for the World squad in the All-Star Futures Game this month in Phoenix, and was rated by Baseball America as the Tigers’ fourth-best prospect.

Furbush and Wells are expected to join the Mariners today.

Furbush, 25, is 1-3 with a 3.62 earned run average in 17 games this season, two of them starts. He has a 2.16 ERA in 15 relief appearances. Wedge said he’d like to see Furbush as a starter, but he’ll probably work as a reliever for now.

“It’s been a while since he’s started, so he’s not really built up,” Wedge said. “We’d like to see him as a starter but there’s also a chance that he’ll be in the bullpen, too.”

Wells, 26, played most of this season as a fourth outfielder with the Tigers before being optioned to Class AAA Toledo on July 20. He batted .257 with four homers and 12 RBI in 64 games with the Tigers, and .370 with two homers and six RBI at Toledo.

Wedge said he would place the athletic Wells into the rotation with other young outfielders Mike Carp and Greg Halman as the Mariners learn more about their potential at the big-league level.

“We’re going to try and take a good look at him,” Wedge said. “We’ve got a lot of young players we want to take a look at, and we’ll add him to the mix.”

Fister and Pauley will join the Tigers on Monday, and Fister is expected to start their game Wednesday against the Texas Rangers.

They’re going from the last-place team in the American League West to the first-place team in the AL Central, but were more than bittersweet about the trade.

“It’s one of the things you dream of as a little kid, to be able to play in the playoffs,” said Fister, 3-12 with a 3.33 ERA and, more notably, the worst run support in the league at 1.97 per game. “Yet, at the same time, as a baseball player we’ve got to go into it as the same game, same job we do every five days. That’s the mentality we have to take.”

Pauley, 5-4 with a 2.15 ERA in 39 relief appearances, said the trade stunned him.

“Things happen and things change all the time,” he said. “I’ve been through this situation before, but it’s a little different (being traded) during the season. It’s another stepping stone in a career. You make the best of it and you move on and prepare yourself for what’s ahead.”

By mid-day Saturday, Fister had a lot of packing to do and still wasn’t enthralled with going online to read about the trade.

“I’m reluctant to even see what’s on Facebook,” he said. “I might not even sign in.”

Read Kirby Arnold’s blog on the Mariners at www.heraldnet.com/marinersblog and follow his Twitter updates at @kirbyarnold.