To combine a couple of answers:
- I'm not in a rush to get Figgins off the team, I'm in a rush to make sure he's not blocking anyone we'll need for our next pennant. I don't believe Chone is for real and even 80 OPS+ Figgins (ie, retrieving one of his several low years from several seasons back) doesn't really help me at all. I'll definitely take this, but I still think Figgins is one 10-day slump from packing it in. Here's hoping that slump doesn't come, I guess. BABIP .350, baby. I'd love a return of some sort on our 9 mil/yr investment, even if I don't think it'll be what I want it to be in June.
- I'm a pretty big Vargas fan. Like him a lot. I'd far prefer him to Beavan for the same price. They are not and will not be the same price. Vargas next year gets 8ish million, and then he'll be looking for the Wasburn-Batista 4/32 on the market. Do I want to give him 10% of my self-imposed salary cap? Not particularly.
- Same with League. He'll be getting 8 mil/yr - or more - to close for somebody. Closers may be more fungible than some other positions in theory, but our bullpen is a pretty mess right now. Do you pay him and risk a Fear-The-Beard arm blowout moment, or trust that his health will stay intact since he's never really had any issues? Aardsma he's not.
So the question is: who do you pay?
The elephant in the room is Ichiro and his $20 mil. I'm almost positive we'll be retaining the services of our RF for something like a 3-year contract. Why 3 years? Because he should be around 2600 major league hits at the end of this year and we're gonna want to see him get to 3000 as a Mariner. And that should happen in his 3rd year.
If we would move Ichiro to CF I could maybe live with that, since his declining production wouldn't kill us there, but we are paying Guti 7 mil a year to (not) play there. So I expect a large portion of payroll to be devoted to a 90 OPS+ OF going forward.
We won't be able to afford to help this team if we're paying $25+ million a year to Figgins, Vargas and League.
~G
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