A decade and a half ago, when planners were trying to visualize the way to best lay out Safeco Field, they looked at the team and saw the awesome power of center fielder Ken Griffey Jr.
Griffey, then at the peak of his soon-to-be Hall of Fame game, was a left-handed hitter with one of the sweetest home run swings in history. Safeco’s design was such that Griffey’s power – and that of any left-handed pull hitter – would be augmented.
Ironically enough, having a home park essentially built to his specifications wasn’t enough to keep Griffey in town. The stadium opened in July 1999, and he was gone at season’s end, forcing a trade to Cincinnati.
The flip side of that stadium plan is that right-handed hitters with power find Safeco a tough place to play. There have been some tremendous right-handed hitters in Safeco in the past decade, but the best of them could go to the opposite field – Edgar Martinez, Alex Rodriguez and Bret Boone.
Ones who couldn’t – say, 2001 All-Star center fielder Mike Cameron – left town when given the chance. Others were traded away and then faded away, such as first baseman Richie Sexson.
All of which brings us to today’s topic, Adrian Beltre. The third baseman put in five good years for the Mariners, but he never came close to his 48-homer power of 2004 with the Dodgers. Beltre liked being in Seattle, and he loved the 2009 club with Griffey and Mike Sweeney and Ichiro and Russell Branyan.
But those close to him say one reason there is almost no chance for him to return to Seattle is that it’s too hard to put up good numbers in Safeco. He hit 103 homers for the Mariners in five years, including just eight in an injury-troubled 2009 season, when he had two prolonged trips to the disabled list. And his average, .334 with the Dodgers in 2004, was never higher than 2007’s .276 with the Mariners.
Small wonder, then, that Beltre, a free agent for the first time since signing a five-year, $64 million deal with the Mariners after the 2004 season, would like to go where his swing is not so heavily penalized.
“He’s got a chance to go someplace like, say, Philadelphia, where the ball flies out to left field,” one Mariner executive said recently. “When he compares that to Safeco, well, there’s no comparison.
“Or he could play near his Southern California home for the Angels or Dodgers and find hitting environments that are much better for his swing.”
Given that Beltre made $14 million last year and has the hard-negotiating Scott Boras as his agent, Seattle’s bringing Beltre back would have been difficult under the best of circumstances. But Seattle general manager Jack Zduriencik does have money to play with – pitchers Jarrod Washburn ($10 million), Miguel Batista ($9 million) and Erik Bedard ($7.75 million) are off the books from this time last year. It should be pointed out that the Mariners are talking with Bedard and are at least considering making a run at Washburn as well.
But the money is there for a big salary at third base. It’s not going to be Beltre, which means the Mariners lose a steady if unspectacular-in-a-Seattle-uniform hitter in Beltre and a Gold Glove defender as well.
So who will it be? The winter meetings, now just 10 days away, may provide an answer. Zduriencik pulled off a huge three-way trade with the Mets and the Indians in his first winter meetings as a GM in Las Vegas last year. And he engineered a minor deal that had a major effect by picking up David Aardsma from the Red Sox. Aardsma went on to become one of the most effective closers in the game in the final five months of the season.
So a trade for a third baseman is eminently possible. Perhaps less so is the signing of a free-agent third baseman, because virtually the entire crop is old and on the north side of 32.
Or the third-base answer already may be on the roster. Matt Tuiasosopo, the club’s third-round pick from Woodinville High School in 2004, has seen his rise slowed by injury, and he may need more time at Triple-A, but he’s an option both at third and at second, where he got some time late in the year.
Second baseman Jose Lopez, coming off his best offensive year, doesn’t have the range to play the kind of second base the Mariners would like, but he might be able to make the change to third. If Lopez moves to third, Tuiasosopo could take over at second.
The Mariners also have a couple of other options on the current roster. Bill Hall, picked up in a midseason deal from Milwaukee, has a bit of a track record. Hall is due to make $8.4 million this year, but the Brewers will be paying about $7 million of that, so he’s a relative bargain. And although his numbers in a part-time role last season with Seattle – a .200 average with two homers in 34 games – weren’t great, he hit 81 homers from 2005 to 2008, including 35 in 2006.
Jack Hannahan, picked up for almost nothing from Oakland in July, hit .230 for Seattle in a part-time role.
Still, it’s a good bet that the replacement for Beltre is not yet on the roster and is awaiting a trade or a free-agent signing.
NOTES: Shortstop Josh Wilson, who temporarily filled a middle infield void for the Mariners after being acquired midseason, has become a free agent. The Mariners outrighted him off the Seattle roster to that of Triple-A Tacoma last week, and, as was his right, he declined. ... Mariner outfielder Michael Saunders made it back from playing winter ball in Venezuela in time for Thanksgiving – or he would have if he wasn’t Canadian. Canada’s Thanksgiving Day is celebrated the second Monday in October. Saunders, who lives in Victoria, B.C., had 85 at-bats in 22 games for Lara in Venezuela and averaged .353 with three doubles, three triples, three homers and 17 RBIs to go with a .421 on-base percentage. The homers were a nice touch, given that he didn’t homer during his brief rookie stint with Seattle this season.
