...he's been saying he owes it to the Mariners to get extended with this team, and I think he will give us a huge hometown discount contract. Nothing suicidal to his finances, but something on the order of 2 years 8 mil per year with a club option for a third year.
For third base, we may have to gamble with a Hannahan Tuiasosopo platoon. And I have absolutely no problems with gambling on Saunders in 2010 if the team can do a little dumpster diving for a right handed hitter who kills lefties to cover for Mike's big weakness. Those types are usually available for essentially no cost.
So here's what I have for payroll:
C, 3B, LF, Bullpen - A total of maybe 7 mil between all 12 players at these spots with the likely configuration being:
CL) Fields
SUR) Lowe
SUL) Aumont
MRR) White
MRL) Olson
MR) Jakubauskas
LR) Vargas or French
C) Rob Johnson
BC) Adam Moore
3B) Jack Hannahan
3B) Matt Tuiasosopo
LF) Mike Saunders
LF) cheap righty platoon mate
8 mil wasted on Johjima, 12 mil wasated on Silva, 10 mil spent on Wilson's option, 13.5 mil spent on Ichiro (remember...his contract has a lot of deferred money), 8 mil on Branyan, 2.5 mil on Lopez, 3.5 mil on Snelll
So far I've spent 71.5 million or so. The beauty of Hannahan is that he's our utility player as well as being insurance against a Tui flop. He can play 2B, 1B, and in a pinch a little short. The two outfielders we have in left can also include our 4th outfielder and I've already dealt with the backup catcher. Now the fourth bench spot can be plugged by a bat first guy...options here include several internal candidates, the leading such candidate would have to be Carp...he can come up and get 300 at bats as a primary bench weapon and learn the game at the big league level without the club being forced to rely on him to sink or swim.
My starting pitchers would be King Felix (8 mil arby estimate), Snell (already accounted for), Rowland-Smith (500 K), Morrow (500 K), and Vargas or Frnech...we may need to spend some money on another high upside low initial investment reclamation project here. Those are usually out there every winter.
Gutierrez is in his first arby, so he's only getting about 3 mil tops.
That leaves the DH spot to fill and about 18 million to fill it. I don't see the problem.
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