Danny Hultzen is Z's poster child for that (new) philosophy. Not the flahiest guy in the draft...but a very solid bet to be a very solid #3 guy in the bigs, relatively soon.
In my Rasmus comments way above I almost referenced Joe Charboneau, myself, btw.
Z is perhaps learning.  Let's invest in guaranteed securities.  Figgy has him gun shy, which is a very good thing.
Ducking and covering on any Rasmus for the house deal was a very good thing.
Now, is Span really available?

I thought the Jays did an excellent job of buying low here. Worse-case scenario you got a cheap young 3 WAR player. Best-case scenario you did better than that.
I guess the actual worst-case scenario is that Rasmus suffers decline, but the Blue Jays gave up almost nothing for him beyond Stewart.
I would have traded Bedard+League for sure, but maybe Z has something better up his sleaves.

I agree, Rasmus is a scary addition.  He can play a glove position though, which makes him less so.  I like him better than Hunter Pence, for instance, who I think would lose all his power and crash and burn eye-wise upon arrival in Seattle.
Maybe I'm wrong, and if we trade for him in the off-season then I definitely hope I'm wrong.
But we need SOMEbody's young stud hitter.  The only reason Rasmus was available was because he got his common sense from a crackerjack box.
Josh Hamilton was like that too, so the question with Rasmus is:  is it fixable, or pathological?
If you make a list of the top ten trade options for the Mariners to help fix their offense, coming from a team that has enough bats/is tired of the club-controlled kid they have and one that needs pitching returned to them, then Rasmus makes that top 10.  Maybe top 5.
For OF types, we're probably looking at, off the top of my head:
- Rasmus (now off the table)
- Pence
- Butler/Gordon (whichever KC would part with)
- Upton (more expensive, but beggars can't be choosers)
- DH Goldschmidt (if Upton is not available and the AZ GM Towers has a stroke)
- Alonso (if he can play LF AND thump, neither of which I believe)
- Ethier/Kemp (again, whichever the Dodgers would give up)
- Quentin
- Sizemore
- Gardner
There are others, I'm sure, but that's a quick round-the-league look.  I mean, I'd love to get Matt Joyce out of Tampa Bay, for instance, but he's not a FA til 2016 and is still making minimum wage - they have no need to move him.  Domonic Brown would be good fun, but the Phillies are looking for RH hitters that we don't have in return.
The above guys are all within a couple years of FA or are kids who haven't yet gotten started.  In a perfect world you get another Smoak-style trade for a guy with all his club years intact but who can produce NOW.
Trading for a prospect in the OF is tough, though - there is a gap in the minors in great corner OF prospects right now.  I'd be interested in getting in on a Domonic Brown trade if the Phils really ARE willing to give him up and the Astros DO want a "really-front-line pitching prospect" in return.  Paxton and Walker are sitting there waiting to be used, if we wanted to use them that way.
Brown to us, Paxton to Houston and Pence to the Phillies works.  We lose 6 years of Paxton but gain 6 years of Brown, so it's a wash there - and Brown is more likely to stay healthy the whole time.
*shrugs*  Like I said, we have options we can work.  But Rasmus coming off the list does reduce those options.  Not necessarily the worst thing if he's not the right guy...but we still have to find the right guy.
~G

http://mlbbuzz.yardbarker.com/blog/mlbbuzz/red_sox_mariners_a_match/5780...
Josh Reddick is being mentioned, though I don't know if that's a "real" possibility. 
Jon Sickles' pre-season Boston ranking is here.
Elaboration from G, or anyone else, would help.
 

He's got Ibanez-level power, and he's a young kid with a lot of club control.  His eye was poor before this year, but his Ks were good - he just never ever walked.  You'd think he was a Latin player or something.  And his BA was/is lower than you'd expect.
He figured out how to hit bendy pitches this year, it looks like, or at least when to swing and how to not ground em out weakly all the time, which is when his walks jumped.
He's still a FB hitter though, which is not bad.  Not a slider-speed FB either.  Watch him take a swing for the Bo Sox - he definitely strokes it with authority. 
I like Josh fine - better than Peguero, that's for sure.  I wouldn't say he's a better option than Carp, but he can also play CF in a pinch which Carp, uh, cannot do.
And he's also a lefty so all his power won't go die in the LCF canyon.  He's trying to turn into Trot Nixon/Raul Ibanez, which is not a bad thing to have.  He's got the batspeed I like, and he's coming around with his pitch recognition.
I would take 6 years of a Trot Nixon type for 3 months of Erik Bedard.  I could get behind a Josh Reddick package.  He WON'T be this hot for much longer - his BABIP is like 4 million percent right now - but he's as talented as any upper minors hitter we currently have (in AAA at 22) and plays a position of need.
And he's about all the Red Sox have that would be a decent fit for us and our current needs, so he's pretty much the only main piece that works in a trade with them.
~G 

Saunders needs to read pitches better to take advantage of that frame.  Josh can get the bat around on anything.  That's one reason his K numbers are much better than Mike's (16% vs 25% for Saunders).  Saunders has walked more in the past than Josh, giving them the same eye ratio of .5, but Josh is much better than that this season while we saw Saunders lose his ability to take a walk while in the bigs.
Reddick was looking stupid against breakers, but he fixed that this year.  Maybe it's small sample size, but he looks like he's putting it together and even after he cools off will still be a decent hitter.  Saunders may be too, but they each need different areas of improvement to get there.
~G

My assumption is that the Ms with their laser focus on pretty OF defense and sprinters in CF would play Reddick in a corner.  If they're willing to let him play CF then his positional bat value goes WAY up - and we'll see what it does to the staff.  Rauuul in CF is worth a metric ton, and then at that point his value is comparable to some of the stars in CF.  
Now, Ackley shows that they're willing to let a great bat work out the kinks in the field at a glove position to maximize his positional value with the lumber.
I don't think we're willing to give up on Guti yet, but nothing says he can't play LF for a year while we figure out if Franklin can recover and then have 4 more years of Reddick manning CF if he can't.
As a corner OF, I think Reddick has good value.  As a CF I think he can be a star bat.  We'll see - Bedard lays down the law on Friday and maybe we'll find out where the Ms would like him to play.
~G