| Craig Sternberg. 11th December, 2009 - 4:41 pm
 The Seattle Mariners have been a franchise defined by their mishaps in the free agent market over the past few seasons. With signings of players such as Richie Sexson and Adrian Beltre, the Mariners have been handcuffed themselves to long-term deals with no winning results to show for it.
With some money to spend this winter, the Mariners made their first big step in changing that course by signing the versatile Chone Figgins to a four-year $36 million deal with a vesting option that could possibly make the deal worth up to $45 million.
Figgins brings a new and much needed element to the Mariners lineup that kept them from contending last year; on base percentage. The Mariners were dead last in the MLB in on base percentage and Figgins comes in after posting a .390 obp last season, which will undoubtedly affect the rest of the lineup's approach for the better.
Figgins will most likely hit second behind Ichiro Suzuki, making the top of their line up one of the fastest and most exciting tandems in baseball. Despite Figgins being on the wrong side of 30, it's been proven that fast lead off type hitters age fairly well as opposed to big power hitters, which makes the four-year deal – possibly five-year deal – a little easier to swallow for Seattle. Combine that with the fact that Figgins has played virtually every position on the diamond and the Mariners might even consider moving him to second base, this deal shouldn’t come back to haunt them like other contracts in the franchises past.
Despite Adrian Beltre likely leaving, the Mariners will maintain their strong defense with Figgins, who was exceptional at third base last season. Maintaining a great defense is critical for the Mariners, who aside from Felix Hernandez don’t have a top of the line strikeout starter.
This signing also weakens the division leading Angels, who now will likely plug in an unproven Brandon Wood at third base and have to ease Erick Aybar into the leadoff position.
While Figgins looks to be an upgrade, certainly the Mariners can’t be done with their offseason moves if they want to contend in 2010. The lineup has very little power, especially in positions that typically produce power hitters. Without much balance in their line up, it’s going to be hard to continuously string hits together in order to get runners home. Aside from that, Figgins stats have been pretty up and down throughout his whole career and especially in the playoffs where Figgins is a career .172 hitter. Whether he can maintain a high level of consistency and right his playoff woes in Seattle will be the key toward making this signing worthwhile. Without it, the Mariners could be tied into another long-term deal that can tie up their resources for the foreseeable future.
This signing is certainly an upgrade and gives the Mariners plenty of options moving forward. Seattle's offseason could be graded much higher once they make other moves to compliment this one. Regardless, this is a step in the right direction at contending in the AL west yet again and bring them back to their contending ways.
Grade for Mariners: B+ |
