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... which of course is why you're thinking in terms of using him yourself, G, and using the savings on offense.  Probably is the Prime Computation, yeah.
Fister had 2.9 WAR last year, which was $12m on the FA market.  He's on pace for 4.0 to 4.5 WAR this year ... $15-17m worth.  I'm sure that a lot of GM's would assess this version as the one they'd get going forward...
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Cots has Fister as making the minimum, and his ML service as 2.06 years after this season ...
Meaning 2012 is club-controls, and then 2013-14-15 as arbitration years, correct?
Have no idea how to calculate the likely arb awards, so somebody please correct me here, but ... in years 3-6, Brett Anderson's salaries were $1m, $3m, $6m, and $8m.  That sound about like Fister's salaries if he keeps pitching like he is now?
Giving some team, roughly:
$16m for $1m next year
$16 for $3 in 2013
$16 for $6 in 2014
$16 for $8 in 2015
$65m for $18m overall
Here is an article that, because of this "Net Value" factor, concludes "Even if Adam Jones was a free agent after 2009, given their respective abilities and salaries, I wouldn’t trade Adam Jones for Erik Bedard straight up. The fact that the Mariners then control Jones from 2010 to 2013 makes this an obviously horrible trade."  
>;- )
In other words, the consensus is that any two years of a cheap, average player are worth more than two years of any superstar even making a discount, as Bedard was presumed to in that article.  We believe that this exact logic still prevails on Fangraphs.
We quote that because (the superb) Tango site also emphasizes this "Net WAR/$" logic  ... and most of baseball considers this logic to be valid on the face of it.  
The logic forgets to adjust for the fact that other club-controls players replace the ones leaving.  This is a fatal flaw to the logic, and is the reason that real GM's continue to trade young players for stars, despite Fangraphs' protests.  (In hindsight, the 2008-13 Jones' net value had to be reduced by the amount that his young CF replacement -- here Gutierrez -- would have.)
MLB governments can print money.  The M's government is about to print a lot more with Paxton, Hultzen, and Walker.  
The Fister money isn't worth much to Seattle, but is precious to some teams.
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All that said, not many teams have max'ed out their rotations.  :- )
Fister (and Vargas, and Paxton) are going to bring a whale of a cost savings to some mid-market team, and you'd think that converting one into hitting would be a strong option.