But at the same time, winning with the pitchers he already got would legitimize it more. The additions late last year of Leake, Ramirez and Gonzales, while not done during the off-season, were clearly done with future years in mind. Including this one. Healy, Ford and Nicasio were also varying degrees of win now. Nicasio is the free agent many are recently saying wasn't signed if I'm reading the complaints right. And LL put together a pretty good case for Ichiro being the best win now option available to the M's for the situation. People don't like that he didn't get the #2-3 type they would have. Some people don't like the Ichiro signing and in both cases they apply what they think it means and often assert it as fact. While it is possible that unknown motivations could be as bad as some suggest, the known facts show that it might not be the case. Or certainly not, in my assessment of the assertion that Dipoto, Stanton, etc. don't want to win.
For me, the Twins picking up Lynn changed the landscape of the AL playoff race. It seems to me at least that in order to minimize the M's playoff chances at this point, Arrietta just needs to sign with Minn or Anah...Snapping him up here would also avoid what almost seems inevitable otherwise.