Shannon Drayer’s position as the reporter for the Official Radio Station can be a double-edged sword. True, she’s not going to be a swashbuckling investigative muckraker (but, frankly, most “beat” reporters aren’t that anyway). On the other hand, her ability to judge the temperature inside the Front Office is very good. (Which, of course, is not the same thing as saying she just parrots what she hears; you’ve still got to filter out what matters.)
For example,when she started saying “watch for Kyle Seager to get a lot of time at third base” (at a time when he was pretty much viewed as “Ackley-lite”), that was a better tip-off of what the brass was thinking than anyone else had.
So … Drayer’s theme over the last couple of months has been pretty constant: with Felix Hernandez and Robinson Cano on the payroll, don’t expect a third high-priced star. Be it Shin-Soo Choo, Masahiro Tanaka, taking on a Cliff Lee contract, or anyone else.
Don’t even think about it.
And, of course, the reaction is foreseeable. Same old Mariners.
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But let’s get laser-focused here, and zero in on the premise, so that we can point the right fingers at the right folks.
Full article at Mariner Brainstorm: here.
I do think there is a long range component in the Mariners Front office's math, but without question... Shannon has heard something about investing too much of the budget to three big contracts... and this is a subject that is a very hot button for Shannon, so if you question her on it... expect a response.
Thus, I think we need not worry about the M's signing anyone for $12M+ over 5 years... but a 1 or 2 year deal with an option at $15M per year may not be.