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Inbox: Who will earn '10 catching duties?
Beat reporter Jim Street answers Mariners' fans questions
By Jim Street / MLB.com
11/18/09 4:26 PM EST
The Hot Stove portion of the baseball season is in full swing and the Mariners have several holes to fill before the start of Spring Training. Rumors will be filling the airwaves and Internet sites (most of them never materialize) and we're here to help sort out fact from fiction. If you have a question, send it in and we'll do our best to answer it.
Do you expect the Mariners to sign a veteran catcher to replace Kenji Johjima, or go with Rob Johnson and Adam Moore?
-- Larry S., Las Vegas, Nev.
From what I have been hearing, the Mariners are interested in Mike Redmond, a 38-year-old free agent receiver who was born in Seattle and attended college at Gonzaga University.
With 742 big league games under his belt, Redmond has considerably more MLB experience than Johnson (100) and Moore (6) put together and could provide some insurance at the catching position. He is not ranked as a Type A or Type B free agent, so the Mariners would not lose a First-Year Players Draft choice as compensation if they sign him.
Redmond is a solid defensive catcher and he hasn't made an error since 2004 in 1,414 total chances and has thrown out 29.5 percent of the would-be basestealers in his career. He won't knock your socks off offensively, batting .237 with no home runs and seven RBIs while backing up Joe Mauer with the Twins last season. He has 13 home runs and 238 RBIs in 2,201 career at-bats.
Why are Adrian Beltre, Erik Bedard, and Mike Sweeney considered to be Type B free agents? If they leave the Mariners, will the Mariners get compensation picks?
-- Chris S., Seattle
Well, Chris, only Beltre and Bedard are Type B free agents. Sweeney is not. At the end of each season, the Elias Sports Bureau ranks free agents based on their previous two years of playing, and against players at their respective positions. A Type A free agent is a player ranked in the top 20 percent at his position. A Type B free agent is ranked below the top 20 percent but in the top 40 percent of players at his position.
The team losing a Type A free agent receives two Draft choices as compensation from the team that signs the player and a team that loses a Type B player receives a sandwich pick between the first and second rounds of the First-Year Player Draft. However, a team selecting in the top half of the Draft (1-through-15) does not lose its first-round Draft choice if it signs a Type A free agent.
For the Mariners to receive a compensatory pick for Beltre, Bedard, or both, they must either be signed before the arbitration deadline in early December, or be offered arbitration by the Mariners but still sign with a different team.
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Is it just me, or is Carlos Triunfel's playing style a tad reminiscent of a young Manny Ramirez? I'm excited for a lineup featuring Dustin Ackley, Triunfel, and possibly Jason Bay. Bringing him in would inject life into this on-the-rise Mariners club. Imagine Ichiro-Ackley-Triunfel-Bay, with Felix Hernandez and Phillippe Aumont two out of every five days?
-- Eli N., Closter, N.J.
Hold your horses, Eli. I believe Triunfel has a terrific future, but to put him in the Ramirez class, even as 20-year-olds, might be a bit much. The Mariners just signed shortstop Jack Wilson to a two-year contract, so unless the Mariners move Triunfel to another position, it could be awhile before he becomes a fixture in the lineup.
Also, I would not be surprised if the Mariners pursue Bay, a free agent, over the winter. But his price tag will be high. I'm sure the Red Sox would go the extra mile to keep Bay, who hit 31 home runs last season.
As for Aumont, you must not have heard that he has been moved to the bullpen and is being groomed as a late-inning specialist, possibly as a setup man first and eventually a closer.
Will Jarrod Washburn be back next year? I heard a rumor that he wanted to come back.
-- Micah F., East Grand Forks, Minn.
Don't hold your breath. Washburn had a terrific season with the Mariners in the final year of his four-year contract before being traded to the Tigers in late July and though he expressed a desire to come back in 2010, I don't see Seattle going that route.
A knee injury that cut into his effectiveness with the Tigers is a concern as he heads onto the free agent market. My gut feeling is that he will sign with the Brewers.
Why would anyone say re-signing Ken Griffey Jr. is a bad move?
-- Brad M., Bellingham, Wash.
In my opinion, the only people who would say that are either ill-informed or are among those fans that find something negative about just about anything. General manager Jack Zduriencik probably put it best on the day Griffey re-signed when he said: "You can't always tell how much a player means to a team by looking at a box score."
As someone who spent a lot of time in the Mariners clubhouse last season -- and the previous season as well -- I can tell you that the duo of Griffey and Mike Sweeney made a huge difference on how the team played on the field. Whereas the 2008 team basically had a room full of people who didn't really like each other, Griffey and Sweeney made sure that everyone was on the same page in '09 and it started in Spring Training.
For anyone out there who thinks that having Griffey around for one more season is a bad idea, you might want to go back to the 2008 season and remember what that was like.
Jim Street is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
