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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