Cracking "The Safe"

Cracking "The Safe": The Seattle Mariners
~ Everything to do with the Seattle Mariners ~

Thursday, December 11, 2003 So the Yankees landed Kevin Brown today from the Dodgers for Jeff Weaver and prospects... The Mariner community seems to think this means that the Dodgers will outbid us for Tejada with there newly freed-up funds. I don't necessarily agree with this. The Mariners have, in all likelyhood, been VERY aggressive in their pursuit of Tejada. They no doubt told him, "you are the centerpiece acquisition of our offseason, we need you". That does not mean that we will grossly overpay for him, but we have made it known that he is the guy we want at SS next season. More than Matsui, Aurilia, Guillen, or Pokey Reese. This may not count for much, but Tejada knows that the M's have been in it from day one. So when the report comes down from ABC/Sportsline that Tejada hopes to have a deal done with an undisclosed team by this weekend ( ), I get the feeling that the M's might be that team. Certainly the Dodgers hadn't likely made a serious formal offer before the Brown deal (they weren't likely to add that kind of payroll). Maybe they will jump in the ring now for Tejada but it at least appears that Tejada's signing has little to do with the proposed A-Rod-Nomar-Manny chain reaction. I hope we get the deal done and proceed to.... Acquiring Trot Nixon. Should the Bo-Sox fail to deal Manny Ramirez and his contract away, Trot Nixon might be non-tendered. Today's Randy Winn signing (at $3.5 million this season) would allow the M's to pay Trot around $5-6 million this year to patrol RF, moving Ichiro to CF and making Winn the subersub. This would allow the M's to non-tender Freddy and Carlos and give Justin Leone or Greg Dobbs a legit shot at 3B. I would love to get something back for Freddy but I think other teams will probably wait to see if he is non-tendered. Basically Trot would get part of Freddy's money and the other part would go to Tejada (with what is saved by parting with Guillen). This weekend should be fascinating. posted at 12/11/2003 04:52:00 PM I'll be back soon to campaign for the additions of Miguel Tejada and Trot Nixon.... posted at 12/11/2003 12:47:00 AM	Email Me M's Blogosphere Links Mariner's Wheelhouse USS Mariner The Mariner Optimist Sports & Bremertonians Mariner Minors Seattle PI Mariners Blog Mariners Fan Home Forum Baseball Links Baseball Primer Baseball Prospectus Minor League Baseball.com Mariners Official Homepage Seattle PI Seattle Times ESPN.com MLB Sportsline.com MLB On-Deck Baseball Prospects Archives Aug. 2003 Dec. 7-13 2003 Dec. 14-20 2003 Dec. 21-27 2003 Dec. 28-Jan. 3 2004 Jan. 4-10 2004 Jan. 11-17 2004 Jan. 18-24 2004 Jan. 24-31 2004 Feb. 1-7 2004 Feb. 8-14 2004 Feb. 15-21 2004 Feb. 22-28 2004 The Bells and Whistles