The Mariners are next in our arbitration eligibles series.
- First time: Josh Wilson, Ryan Rowland-Smith, Sean White, Jason Vargas
- Second time: David Aardsma
- Third time: Brandon League, Ryan Langerhans
- Fourth time: Casey Kotchman, Jose Lopez
Vargas, Aardsma, and League are locks to be tendered contracts for 2011. Aardsma's second-consecutive 30-save season should result in a nice raise, and the Mariners might feel compelled to trade him.
Kotchman will be cut, as will Lopez after his option is declined. Langerhans also figures to be non-tendered, but like last year he could be re-signed to a minor league deal.
First timers Wilson and Rowland-Smith have statistics ugly enough to keep their arbitration rewards low. Wilson might be retained for his defensive skills, Rowland-Smith for his previous promise. White might still be in jeopardy.
What a bad baseball team lol
Preseason AL West Champs!
Mariners: 2010 MLB Participants.
I’m not sure I’d keep any really. Maybe League. I guess they might have to keep Aardsma since they don’t have anyone to replace him, or they could trade him. No one else has much value to me.
186+ innings of 3.91 ERA ball holds no value to you? Because that is what Vargas has provided them with…
I see it kind of like the Correia situation in SD last year. Its tough to offer him Arbitration knowing he is going to get a big raise when he has never had this sort of success before.
Lopez would look nice in pinstripes. Good backup for Arod/cano
McDonald’s pinstripes, maybe.
Vargas is a stout #4 or #5 pitcher. He’ll never be a rotation anchor, but there’s value in his skills to cost ratio.
Keep Aardsma, League, Vargas, Rowland-Smith, Langerhans, and the Wilsons. They’ve all got value if they’re utilized properly. In other words, keep Josh Wilson on the bench as a utility guy and sign some SS depth, no more starting for RRS, and trade Aardsma for anything he can fetch.
If I had to guess, Aardsma, League, Vargas, White and Wilson will be tendered contracts. The last two will be cheap, Aardsma will be easier to trade once they sign him (pre-arbitration), and League and Vargas are worthy of raises. Langerhans is a 4th or 5th OF at best, and can be re-signed on a minor league contract. At this point, same for RRS… he’ll get a raise in arbitration, and the M’s could bring him back on a minor league deal after a non-tender. He wouldn’t fetch much interest in the free agent market. Kotchman will definitely be non-tendered; $3.5 MM just for defense doesn’t cut it these days. However, he could be brought back at a lower salary if the M’s want to give Smoak more seasoning in the minors. Lopez is out the door; they’ve been playing Mangini at 3B for the last week. The M’s will turn down his option and non-tender him, since he could match what he would have gotten with the option in arbitration. The M’s are trying to make room for Ackley soon, which also means that Chone Figgins is a trade candidate.
I’m thinking that the Mariners will non-tender Kotchman, Lopez, Langerhans, White, Rowland-Smith and Josh Wilson. But the Mariners will offer Langerhans, White and Wilson minor league deals with Rowland-Smith likely getting a major league deal to avoid arbitration after his terrible year.
League and Vargas will get raises via arbitration.
Aardsma will be traded.
its a necessity we bring back league and J varg. league is a good but can be great set up man. Vargas is a solid 3 or 4 starter. say bye bye to aardsma and hello cortes. and of course we need to get rid of the worst pitcher in baseball, rowland smith and lopez who cant do jack squat keep j wilson and kotchman for his glove. nice back up to smoak also
there seems to be something so deep-rooted wrong with this franchise
could be the corporate putzes in the head offices
Jack Z appeared so right in righting the ship in the offseason and then not only did his good moves fall apart but so few players that did have good seasons last year had worse ones
Aardsma will stick. The M’s have arms in Cortez, Lueke, Fields, Varvaro and Kelly who should all be ready to go in 2011. Any of these guys could compete for the closer role, by why put that pressure on any of them? Let Aardsma fill that role until the trade deadline. If he has a better start to 2011 than he did in 2010 then he’ll have better trade value at the deadline than he will have over the winter.
However, if TB loses their closer to FA and the Rays want to trade us a SS for Aardsma? I’ll take that.That’s just a dream anyways.
White, Langerhans, Kotchman and Lopez all just need to go away. The M’s have plenty of guys in Tacoma that need to be getting MLB at bats next year. Wilson (Mike), Saunders, Winfree and Halman all could be getting playing time in LF and at DH next year and you can pick the 4th OFer out of who doesn’t win the LF gig. The money saved on not signing Langerhans can pay off Lopez’s option.
Unfortunately, Vargas is currently the M’s #2 starter. On real MLB team, he’s #4 or #5. Vargas has the make up to pitch in the #2 spot. He did fatigue towards the end of the season. His 192 IP’s was a career high. I think he gets better next year. He’ll be one more year away from his 2008 season that he lost from an arm injury. His ERA was 3.09 before the AS break and 4.66 after it.