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http://mynorthwest.com/?sid=2150785&nid=651
------------ While there has been a lot of interest shown in the Mariners' young players, he isn't seeing the return he would need to see on the young pitchers in particular to pull the string on a trade. Right now, teams are offering players with one or two years control and Zduriencik is not willing to give up top prospects for that. ------------
 
So teams really are offering up 31 year old platoon OFers for Taijuan Walker.  I don't blame Z for not taking that offer, and if he's going down he wants it to be swinging with the players he believes in.
 
------------ The lack of return is not the only reason we might not see Zduriencik trade his pitching this winter. He spoke at length about maximizing their value, which he believes will not happen until they make it to the big leagues. As for the players already in the big leagues, it didn't sound like he wanted to move them either. I asked him if he had his druthers, would he like to hold onto what he has now and give it another year to grow?
"That is probably not the popular thing to say because I would love to be able to do something right now, love to be able to do it, and maybe we will through free agency," he answered. "There are a lot of factors that go into why a player chooses a certain city to come to and play, but we are going to listen, we will continue to have talks, but at the end, we have a pretty good thing going right now and to throw it away for a short-term fix? I don't believe is going to be the right answer." -------------
 
So they're prepping us to return most of the core and let em grow another year.  I don't have a problem with that.  I do have a problem with ticket prices staying the same but the salary figures bottoming out.  Why not pay for 1 or 2 years of Mark Reynolds at 6 per?  Why not pay a closer and let Wilhelmsen out into the rotation?
Yes, it's possible to field a competitive team at $65 mil - see the As, and the Rays.  But we don't HAVE to.  Pay a guy to do something you don't have a prospect for, like playing 1B or LF.
Grr.  Again, if we're trading for Lo-Mo or Myers like we did for Montero, then I understand the salary thing not being where you projected. "We were gonna sign Reynolds, but got Lo-Mo instead.  Similar production levels, cheaper player, whatcha gonna do."
But it looks to me like - if Swish doesn't sign here - that it'll be Vargas plus yet another salary cut.  Which is stupid. There were 1 or 2 year placeholders if we needed em to solidify the roster and keep salary high enough to convince fans AND PLAYERS that we weren't kidding about competing.
~G