Seattle Mariners executives leave today for baseball’s winter meetings in New Orleans, armed with a to-do list that makes their workplace the next five days seem like anything but the “Big Easy.”
Nothing may be easy given the issues the Mariners would like to discuss with other teams today through Monday.
Mariners general manager Bill Bavasi spoke mostly in general terms Wednesday about the Mariners’ mission and what he hopes to accomplish at the meetings.
“A lot of clubs use the winter meetings to understand what clubs are doing with the rest of the offseason,” he said. “We are prepared to go into the winter meetings and talk to everybody who is a match for us. What is likely to happen is we’ll do a lot of talking there and walk away with information on a lot of clubs and what they will do by spring training.”
Of moving Cirillo, Bavasi said only that the Mariners are talking to other teams.
“We’ve had discussions and, yes, it’ll be a part of what we’ll do (at the meetings),” he said.
Bavasi said the Mariners prefer to improve the offense with changes at shortstop and third base, unless efforts to work out a new contract with center fielder-to-be Randy Winn fall apart before the Dec. 20 deadline to tender him a contract offer.
“We’ve got to look at center field, take a close look at third base and shortstop,” Bavasi said.
The easy answer is to trade Cirillo, re-sign shortstop Carlos Guillen (he’s also eligible for arbitration) and move him to third base, then sign the biggest-name free-agent shortstop on the market, Tejada.
Bavasi wasn’t certain whether there will be a domino effect if Rodriguez goes from the Rangers to the Red Sox in exchange for outfielder Manny Ramirez, and what impact it might have on the Mariners. That deal would make Boston shortstop Nomar Garciaparra expendable.
“If the deal could throw another shortstop into the market, I would not expect it to hold things up,” Bavasi said.
There’s been speculation that the Anaheim Angels, who already have beefed up their starting rotation with Kelvim Escobar and Bartolo Colon, would be interested in Garciaparra.
Bavasi said he is intrigued by the Angels, but he must make moves with his own payroll in mind. He said he believes the Mariners have room in their payroll budget of $92-$95 million to accomplish their needs.
“Payroll won’t be an issue doing what we want to do at this point,” Bavasi said. “There are two ways to look at that, from my point of view. If we can operate reasonably, there shouldn’t be any problems. If the demands are outlandish, then we’re going to have a problem.”
Besides the dream of getting a hitter the likes of Tejada, the Mariners also need a left-handed relief pitcher.
After the recent free-agent signings of Shigetoshi Hasegawa, Raul Ibanez and Eddie Guardado, more than $60 million is spoken for. The Mariners are negotiating with outfielder Ichiro Suzuki, who is eligible for arbitration and may end up getting more than $10 million.
“Generally, we’re involved in real amicable talks,” Bavasi said. “Things are going fine.”
There are seven others – Garcia, Guillen, Winn, Ben Davis, Ryan Franklin, Joel Pieiro and Gil Meche – eligible for arbitration, a process the Mariners want to avoid. Still, those seven could consume another $20 million.
To get a player like Tejada (who made $5.125 million in 2003), it may take a trade to clear salary room. In that case, Garcia would be vulnerable because of his arbitration-eligible status.
The next five days in New Orleans may determine if that will be necessary.
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