One good way to gain a sense of proportion here is Bill James' Win Shares, which were co-opted by Baseball Prospectus' WARP, which was co-opted by Fangraphs' WAR. The latter two refined Win Shares ever-so-slightly, and now most people give the credit to those who tweaked the invention of James.
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Anyway:
D.J. upside = 3, maybe 4 WAR at 1B
Choo = 5 WAR, multiple times, due to the insane OBP
Zobrist = 8 WAR one year, 5-6 WAR routinely, 5 WAR this year
But of course you are talking about fewer years with Zobrist, and paying him more salary. Still, let's not kid ourselves about Zobrist's worth. "In a vacuum" he has been one whale of an impact player, and he is worth more to the Mariners (no OBP in front of their Stars) than he is to most teams.
Here, you guys, LOOK at Zobrist's WAR. And bear in mind that he could do this for 5 more years. He is badly underrated because there is no one stat column -- AVG, RBI, etc -- that overwhelms (James axiom). That is totally different than Chone Figgins syndrome. Zobrist's hitting skills are not soft.
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I think we'd all agree that Zobrist, right now, is worth SOME premium, since he's the "last puzzle piece*" in a year he could make the difference.
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I think we'd all agree, too, that a lot of prospects could be moved to 1B.
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