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Dunn costs $10 mil next year, Scutaro would run us 8 mil a year probably and Bedard is going to cost virtually nothing upfront...he's going to be very lucky to get anything more than a few mil guaranteed.  I would encourage the Mariners to get TWO high-risk pitchers instead of one...try to get 35 starts from both of them combined...the net cost of which would be about the same as one legit #2 starter.
Say we signed Ben Sheets, Erik Bedard, and Marco Scutaro and traded Brandon Morrow to the Nationals for Adam Dunn straight up...now our roster looks like:
Catchers (carrying 2 of the 3 active at any time)
Rob Johnson (min)
Adam Moore (min)
Veteran depth (e.g. Juan Castro - 0.5)
Infielders (carrying all six the full year)
Russell Branyan (6.0)
Jose Lopez (2.5)
Bill Hall (3.0)
Matt Tuiasosopo (min)
Marco Scutaro (8.0)
Josh Wilson (min)
Outfielders (carrying 4 of the 5 at any time)
Michael Saunders (min)
Ryan Langerhans (0.8)
Franklin Gutierrez (3.0)
Ichiro! (12.5)
Dustin Ackley (min)
DH
Adam Dunn (10.0)
Starting Pitchers (carrying up to 6 at a time, but if 6, one is a reliever)
Felix Hernandez (12.0)
Ben Sheets (5.0)
Erik Bedard (3.0 - incentives pushing it to 8.0 if he pitches a lot)
Ian Snell (3.0)
Ryan Rowland-Simth (0.6)
Doug Fister (min)
Jason Vargas (min)
Carlos Silva (12.0)
Luke French (min)
Relievers (carrying up to 7 at any time...less if starters are in the pen)
David Aardsma (1.0)
Mark Lowe (0.8)
Sean White (0.5)
Shawn Kelley (min)
Chris Jakubauskas (min)
Any 2 additional minor leaguers (2*min)
84.2 mil to 89.2 mil plus 13*0.437 or 89.9 to 94.9 mil  Well within our budget.  With room to tack on at the trade deadline if we need it or to sign a veteran reliever or two to back up our young guns or to add additional outfield depth if you're not comfortable with Saunders.
The opening day line-up would look like:
Ichiro (RF)
Scutaro (SS)
Dunn (DH)
Lopez (2B)
Branyan (1B)
Gutierrez (CF)
Tuiasosopo/Hall (3B)
Hall/Saunders (LF)
Johnson/Moore (C)
I could live with that...I think Wak would enjoy that.
Also note...this team has a lot of depth to respond to injuries or poor performance.  Gutierrez gets hurt?  Langerhans can play center in a pinch or you can reach down and get Ackley or Zeke Carrera or Tyson Gillies.  Saunders not living up to the potential yet?  Lots of outfield options, starting with Bill Hall.  Branyan gets hurt?  Call up Mike Carp.  Tui can play 2B or 3B, So can Hall.  Scutaro can be backed up by Josh Wilson.  The catching triad has that spot covered just fine once we find our veteran back-up.

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