Market has M’s reeling
ANAHEIM – The Seattle Mariners worried that agents like Scott Boras might set the market for free agents at the winter meetings and then something worse happened.
Other teams set the market – and they set it high. After three more signings Friday, none of them high-profile players, the Mariners were forced to adjust their off-season strategy again.
“You know it’s possible the market could go higher,” general manager Bill Bavasi said, “and no one we have offers on the table to is off the board. But it could make those offers go up. Does it affect us? I’d be hiding my head in the sand to say no.”
While the Mariners are still trying to land an offensive star - third baseman Adrian Beltre, first baseman Carlos Delgado or first baseman/outfielder Richie Sexson – what happened Friday didn’t help them.
The Angels signed 38-year-old outfielder Steve Finley to a two-year, $14-million contract. The Diamondbacks grabbed pitcher Russ Ortiz for four years and $34 million. And the Rangers agreed to a one-year, $4.5-million deal with outfielder Richard Hildalgo.
Coming on the heels of Arizona’s four-year, $45-million offer to Troy Glaus – coming off major reconstructive shoulder surgery – the market for the bigger names out there keeps growing.
“When we talked to Troy’s agent, we wanted to know about his throwing program, and he hadn’t started it yet the first time we talked,” Bavasi said. “Then we talked again in late November, and he’d just started throwing. We were thinking in the $35-$40 million range with Glaus, but the fact he hadn’t thrown kind of took him off the table for us.”
The Mariners gamely tried to stay in the running for right-handed pitcher Carl Pavano, exchanging a detailed package with his agent, Scott Shapiro.
Yet when Shapiro held a brief conference with the media Friday evening, he said the two fiercest competitors for Pavano were probably the Yankees and Tigers.
The Mariners would love to add a starting pitcher to their staff, but the priority is offense, they said. And there are plenty of productive bats still available.
None is going to come cheaply. Among them:
Beltre, the Los Angeles third baseman coming off a monster season… . Sexson, a slugger coming off two shoulder injuries – both suffered on wild swings at the plate… . Magglio Ordoñez, a former White Sox All-Star right fielder, coming off a season-gutting knee injury… . J.D. Drew, the Atlanta outfielder with a history of injuries, coming off a marvelous season… . Corey Koskie, the Twins third baseman, a productive hitter who has never been a star… . and Jeromy Burnitz, who had a productive year in Colorado but has had trouble with consistency in his career.
“There’s no sense of urgency, because that’s not the way you put a team together,” Bavasi said. “There’s no reason for urgency. We have to make changes, we have a lot to do. But I don’t know that we’ll come away from these meetings with anything.
“I know we’re trying. We’d like all the players we’re pursuing, but now it’s a matter of in what combinations? The market changing could alter that considerably.”