The Mariners will non-tender Jose Lopez tomorrow, according to Mike Salk of 710 ESPN Seattle. The M's declined their option for Lopez earlier in the offseason and were not expected to offer the infielder a contract through the arbitration process.
The 27-year-old batted .239/.270/.339 in 622 plate appearances last year and saw his homer total drop from 25 to 10. Lopez has typically displayed more pop than he showed in 2010, but he has always had trouble reaching base, as his career .297 OBP shows. Lopez, who is eligible for free agency after 2011, played third last year, but has spent most of his career at second base. The Rockies have some interest in signing him.
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Go get ’em Cards!
This is a mistake
You think letting a guy who doesn’t produce is a mistake? I liked Lopez. I feel for the guy as he’s had to deal with a lot of personal turmoil with deaths in the family but man he was frustrating to watch last year. He’s painfully slow running the bases and average at best defensively. At the plate he’s a liability. It’s best they let him go.
Actually most defensive metrics state he is an above average defender.
I go by what I saw in every game I watched(maybe all but about 5 which I listened to on the radio). While technically his stats say he was above average if you actually watch him play you would see that he’s really not. I think other GM’s see this as well which is why he wasn’t traded last year.
Did you misread the title?
I was being sarcastic
look at this guys name texas mariner make up your mind dude
Your ignorant, I live in Texas and am a Mariners fan from when I lived in Seattle.
Maybe he can return for a contract about 1.5 millions or so, he´s a good player, only a bit crazy at the plate
Thank you, thank you! Please let him go!
Let somebody fill that position who actually cares and works hard.
I smell AA and the Jays all over this one. Corect me if I’m wrong-but could he 3rd?
sorry “play 3rd”
uhhhh yep. He played 3rd all last year.
I don’t see him as a upgrade over our current options. If necessary, Bautista could play 3rd, with Snider, Wells and Davis in the OF. I think that AA would either try to land a better 3rd baseman than Lopez, or stay with what we’ve got.
Fair enough…but aren’t they leaning on keeping J-bau in RF?
Yes, I believe they’re leaning that way, as there’s a perception that Bautista’s arm is more valuable in RF than at 3rd; however, I wouldn’t say that Bautista’s defence in RF could be described as stellar. I think he’s capable at both positions, but outstanding at neither. I’m sure AA is looking for a 3B that would be an upgrade over Bautista at 3rd and I’m not convinced that Lopez is that guy. His OBP is low, and he seems to be rather error-prone. His fielding percentages over the years aren’t particularly noteworthy. Further, it’s noted that he can display some “pop” with the bat, but I think the Jays already have sufficient “pop” and could use some on-base guys to benefit by the big bats behind them. This year clearly demonstrated that pop doesn’t translate into a wild card berth.
Still has a Good bat, Get him out of SafeCo. and He WILL help someone. Won’t be suprised if someone picks him up to play 1st. Mabye Texas @ 1st. Or The Angels @ 3rd.
Sure, Safeco probably doesn’t help him, but I’m not sure how much it matters where you play when you have absolutely no concept of what the strike zone is.
But he’s a guy who hit 25 homers in 09′ When he makes contact he can put the ball in the seats, and that has value.
Lopez
Sefe
Lopez
Sounds great, I’d love to see Seattle pitchers facing Lopie!
Hope the Dodgers take a flyer on him as a 2B. Uribe can shift to 3rd.
Looking at stats….looks like a slump year, last year.
Anybody has more details on this guy?
I agree. Especially if Loney sticks around, the Dodgers really need to platoon him at 1B with someone that can hit LHP. That someone who should be Casey Blake, who is pretty much useless vs. RHP.
Not a bad idea. That way Blake and Gibbons can platoon in LF.
Broc,
That’s exactly what I was thinking.
The dodgers can easily get 20 hrs from the Gibbons/Blake combo in LF. Defense would suffer though.
If Lopez can play ok defense at 2B with about 10 HRs I’ll take it.
So we can have 2 sub 300 OBP in the same lineup? Oh joy..
This SHOULD clear the way for Seattle to move Figgins back to the hot corner where he belongs. He’ll get a few million bucks as a free agent, just not what he’d have gotten in arbitration.
You can update your tracker, just with a couple of Tigers. Raburn and Zumaya will be given contracts, according to comments from management. Zach Miner has been DFA’ed.
he DOES have some power, i saw him hit 30% of his home runs last year in 1 game in toronto…safeco’s just an awful park for RH hitters
Toronto is a bit of a band box. In general though he doesn’t have that much pop.
That was a very good game
Does he have to be claimed and then traded, or just claimed in general?
If a player is non-tendered then they become a free agent. There’s no waiver process, they go straight into the free agent pool.
I think he can´t be a free agent yet, his service time is only 5 years and the minimum is 6 for be a free agent, I´m not sure, but I guess so…
If he gets non-tendered, he’s a free agent. It means that his team is giving up their rights to him and he’s free to sign wherever. Whichever team signs him will hold the right to the rest of his team-controlled years.
He has a career .280/.312/.413 line outside of Seattle. Ideally, he’s a bench guy in the mold of Juan Uribe (minus the ability to play SS) for a contender.
dodgers?
“Anybody has more details on this guy?”Jose Lopez is gifted and cursed with high contact ability. He swings at everything. Constantly swinging at pitchers pitches. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should kind of swing.Needless to say his plate approach is terrible. He was one of the worst offensive regulars in baseball last year because of it. He had set a personal goal of “50 walks ” last season of which he totaled less than half of that. THat was with effort.He’s a pure pull hitter now. He had upside when he hit to all fields he has totally turned away from that. His power is marginal despite 2009. He’s only hit a handful of HR’s over 400 ft in his career. Warning track power I believe it’s called.If you’re thinking he can gain strength and that he will in turn transform into a power bat think again. He’s not that kind of athlete. He just gets fatter and slower. Really, his growth curve is probably more like David Wells than David Wright. He’s managed to be a below average defender at 2B and after a good start at 3rd last year regressed into an average 3B glove. He has an arm though.Besides all that his work ethic is constantly questioned and he has a frustratingly low baseball IQ. Our beloved announcer Niehaus referred to him as “Lopie” which always conjured images of a basset hound. And thats pretty much Jose Lopez in a nutshell. A Bassett Hound.
He might work out as a replacement for Uggla in south Florida.
Get him out of that stadium and out of the horrendous lineup, and I think he will be an excellent pickup
Tough to employ someone who makes an out 70% of the time and isn’t known for doing other things well.
He’s got good power for 2B and is known as a pretty good gloveman. Even with his OBP problems, some team has a role for him.
Glove man, really? Where on earth did you hear that?
omg! where did you hear that?! He is the worst fielder at 2b in the majors. He is considered to be “good” at 3rd only because he had a good beginning of the year in the field. But it soon become noticeable that he was average at best with his glove at 3rd and had HORRIBLE range.
Lopez has more value at 2B than at 3B. People get hung-up on his 25HR season in ’09. Everyone figured out that he hits all his HR to left field and they started pitching him pitcher pitches outside and he swung at all of them cause that’s what he does. Lopez has some power, more than your average 2B. He actually might be OK in a RHB friendly stadium, but he is never going to walk and he is infamous for GIDP.
In a good park situation in probably the NL, he can probably put up a .285/.305/.485 line with tolorable defense (but still the worst). He has some value, but none in Seattle.
bring him to the north side…I like Blake Dewitt and feel he deserves the starting 2b job but somebody like Lopez could really challenge him, if not he could be our IF back up..Rudy could probably help fix his swing too
The problem isn’t his swing, if he’s in a park that is suited for a right handed pull hitter just as torronto was obviously suited for Jose Bautista, the problem here is Jose lopez’s entire approach at the plate.
Jack Z should of traded this guy for a bag of balls when he had a chance, now we have to pay for batting practice equipment.
Good riddance.
Great now they can suck less.
Red Sox get him!!!! the next adrian Beltre!
lol yea that’s it.
great now he will go to another team and become an all-star. isnt that what hapens here in seattle?
With our luck probably. You lose either way cause you know damn well he won’t figure it out as a Mariner. They rarely do.
With our luck probably. You lose either way cause you know damn well he won’t figure it out as a Mariner. They rarely do.
this either smells of a jack-z-pick-up at the winter meetings or really taking a look at ackley next year at 2nd moving figgins back to where he belonged the whole year.