Seattle Mariners and Robinson Cano

I'll be the first to admit I was skeptical of the major signing of an aging star from the Bronx in Seattle. After all the Mariners haven't made the playoffs in 12 years and have only had 2 winning seasons during that time span. Why is their rebuilding taking so long? As most Mariners fans here will tell you it's due to the fact that we are forever in a rebuilding mode with the current regime in charge. They like to take in young talent and develop them into decent players. Right before they hit their prime the Mariners will trade them off for more young talent or old "has beens."
This is not just emotion talking either. Let's take a look at some examples...

Alex Rodriguez started in Seattle and he looked promising. However, he also realized he was good and asked for more money. Instead of paying him they let him go. He had a prosperous, possibly questionable, career after that.

Carlos Guillen, while not as good as ARod was still an all star quality SS most years. He would have been a good fit in Seattle for years. Instead as they saw his stardom start to shine, they shipped him off.

Brian Fuentes, a solid all star quality closer. Somehow Seattle decided to give up his great pitching talents, along with a few other no name players, for a mediocre, possibly below average third baseman.

Shin-Soo Choo, was an above average outfielder. The Mariners seemed to jump through hoops to get him. Instead of giving him time to adjust to the MLB play style, they shipped him off to Cleveland where he had 3 seasons batting above .300 and two seasons of 20+ homers. The Mariners rarely have hitters that good in their lineup these days.

Rafael Soriano, who pretty much carried the Braves bullpen for a while. He showed a ton of promise early in his career in Seattle, but much like other young talents who get good, he was given away.

Omar Vizquel (is it me or do the M's find great Hispanic SS's?) He has been an above average and sometimes allstar caliber player ever since he left the Mariners. The kicker is that he's still healthy and playing. He wasn't even that expensive to keep around and he could have been a house hold name in Seattle.

Adam Jones and George Sherrill. The Mariners front office has been so bad they decided to give up 2 all stars for an aging injury riddled pitcher at the time. Why give up 2 all stars for one? That never made sense.

So why reminisce about bad trades when talking in a post about Cano? It just goes to show how short sighted and unintelligent the Mariners front office is when making good baseball decisions. Unless their goal is to continually farm players out to better teams for years (which it sure feels like).
Now let's get into "big" free agent acquisitions that the Mariners seem to do. They are notorious for signing that one "big name" player each off season to prove that they "want to win." However, they seem to go after washed up has beens or players who are aging. They also tend to sign huge long term deals to a player who then plays their most mediocre or worst baseball in their careers while in Seattle. Let's take a look at that list...

Kenji Johjima, while I admit he had a good season or 2, he was still rumored to suck at catcher and his hitting skills fell off after he signed a $24M contract with the Mariners.

Rich Aurilia signed a $3.4M contract with the Mariners. He played some of his worst baseball in Seattle and left immediately.

Pokey Reece, who is probably the most unheard of signing. This guy was paid over $1M to never play a single game as a Mariner. I thought that was wroth mentioning, even though it's not a big contract. I'll gladly take $1M for free to do nothing for a year...

Brad Wilkerson was paid $3M to bat around .230 on average. What a great investment he was.

Carlos Silva was a terrible pitcher but the Mariners needed a pitcher and he appeared to be all they could attract at the time. So they way overpaid by signing him for $48M and all he did was continue to disappoint by losing games and giving up homerun after homerun.

Carl Everett, the big supposed slugger who was going to help boost the lineup with power. He was paid $4M to bat around .227 and didn't even last an entire season in Seattle.

Scott Spiezio was supposed to be a defensive minded player who could give you versatility in the lineup and get on base at least a third of the time. Well that didn't happen in Seattle. He had less than 2 horrible seasons. Of course as soon as he left Seattle he started doing well again.

Miguel Batista was already an average pitcher before the Mariners got him. They still thought he'd be a solid pitcher in the rotation and paid a whopping $25M for his average talents. He rewarded the Mariners (in what should be a pitcher friendly ballpark) by giving up an ERA of over 6!

Richie Sexson, who I think is by far the worst free agent pickup of all time, was supposed to add power to the middle of what was a pretty crappy lineup. He had one good year in his career and Seattle immediately signed him for $50M to reward his one good year. He then proceeded to show Seattle his skills by playing poor defense at 1B and struck out at the plate more than he should have.

Adrian Beltre was a compliment signing to Sexson. With 2 big bats in the lineup they thought they would be a force to reckon with. Unlike Sexson Beltre at least brought defensive skills with him. However, in a non-hitter friendly park he didn't do much for his career average. After leaving the Mariners he quickly got back into his allstar self in just about every category.

Chone Figgins (pronounced sean but everyone says it like it's spelled lol). He signed with the M's for $36M. Nobody questioned this signing (much like they aren't questioning the Cano one). For years he was a solid player. He could bat well, play great defense, and was incredibly fast. Then he comes to Seattle where he has career lows in just about every stat line possible. It's still incredible how fast he dropped off in skills or possibly the leadership and coaching in Seattle is that bad.


So now that we've gone over lists for bad trades and bad free agent acquisitions, the proof of the Mariners organization's inability to form a good solid baseball team is quite evident over the last decade. If the Japanese owners were smart they would clean house and start fresh, not just with players, but with the front office as well. They'll have a better chance using the Billy Beane strategy of statistical analysis and picking up average defensive minded players and solid pitchers. The one bright spot in the Mariners current future is Felix Hernandez, but like all amazing pitchers, his arm will not last forever. Especially with the velocity he throws at and the amount of innings he's forced to pitch due to a sloppy bullpen and no run support.

In closing, based on history it's easy to predict that signing a player over 30 who is past his prime to a huge long term deal will not end well for the Mariners. Even at his career averages Cano is not worth the money Seattle paid for him when they could have easily signed several other players for the price of one. My bold prediction is that Cano will walk the same path Beltre and Figgins walked when they came to Seattle. He will see career lows in his stats and his mediocre defense will draw criticism.