basically the skills the team doesn't currently lack?
Figgins had some good defensive years at 3rd but was mostly more of a Zobrist type, moving around. Offensively, I get the comparison. The thing with Figgins is it was largely unprecedented for someone like that to produce for years then fall off a cliff at 33. His age 32 season, 1st in Seattle, wasn't horrible or out of line for his career numbers. Looked like a down year, which he had had before. Then *Poof*...Nothing left.
The red flag for Fowler that I see is the defensive metrics in CF. We're not looking for him to play there much. Teams moving on from him in CF with that in mind makes pretty good sense. At a corner his defense should be significantly better. But he won't move all around. He hasn't had down years like Figgins had and would be 2 years younger on the 1st year of the deal.
Even if they are comparable...Should we avoid the next Ackley?