I have to wonder if Bill Bavasi feels like one of the kickball team captains on the playground, except his opponents have been able to choose all the athletic kids and he's left with the first-chair tuba player, the exchange student from the Ukraine who still doesn't quite understand the rules, and the Librarian's teacher's pet.
Now that he's struck out on Hiroki Kuroda, it appears that he's willing to simply go down the logical list of free agents and blow cash on the next best thing.
I have an alternative to suggest. Why not gun for a risk-reward type of player, and attempt to sign them in the short term? The beauty of such a deal allows the M's to stay competitive in next year's much, MUCH better free agent market as well as retain the potential to contend in 2008, provided the choices are made prudently.
For instance, what about Bartolo Colon? Yes, he’s a giant man with a fickle elbow and even more fickle back but many forget he won a Cy Young just two years ago. When healthy, Colon has the ability to dominate and in a market where Carlos Silva might pull down near $50 million dollars, giving Colon a one year deal for $9-10 million bucks is the kind of risk the Mariners should be interested in. Besides, if he doesn’t strike fear into opposing batters, he will at a minimum strike fear into the guy setting up the buffet table.
Another possibility is a former Mariner, Freddy Garcia – who depending on what report you read – will be available between May and July. Garcia, for his career has been a consistent innings eater, going over 200 innings in seven of his nine seasons. His career ERA is 4.07, he’s still relatively young at 31, and he has a much better pedigree than a Kyle Lohse or a Carlos Silva. Freddy Garcia at least has the potential to be a front of the rotation kind of arm whereas many of the “top free agent targets” project as #4 starters at best. Freddy could likely be had for a one year guaranteed deal at $7-8 million.
I also endorse the idea of a one year deal for David Wells and/or a two year deal for Mark Prior, but I’ll spare career details on them because I’m pretty confident that they are well off the Mariner radar.
I can only hope that the Mariners don’t mortgage their future due to a weak free agent market. I expect we’ll know soon.
