A Few Small Gambits

The winter meetings closed with the M's not making any more of the huge moves that many anticipated. They came away with Figgins as their big signing and then made some smaller moves, by resigning shortstop Josh Wilson to a minor league contract, grabbing Kanekoa Texeira in the Rule 5 Draft and signing veteran outfielder Corey Patterson to a minor league deal with an invitation to Spring Training.

While Mariners fans may be chomping at the bit for the big free agents to still come in, knowing how everything played out last year, we can not ignore these small moves, particularly that of acquiring Patterson. After all, several of the key players on the roster were pretty obscure at the start of last season. Some would never have been pegged as starers at the Major League level. Here's a couple of examples.

Case 1: Closer David Aardsma

Aardsma was a former first round draft pick by the San Francisco Giants back in 2004. He had brief stints with the Giants, White Sox, Cubs, and ended up in Boston in 2008. He was used primarily as a middle reliever when brought from the minors and never posted an ERA below 4.00. In fact, He only managed an ERA under 5.50 once prior to the 2009 season. In the minors, he was given the chance to close games, picking up 44 saves between the A and AAA levels, but never appeared he'd be given a chance to do that in the bigs.

The only thing that stood out about Aardsma was a career 9.1 strikeout per 9 innings ratio. However, it must have been enough to get Zduriencik to trade Fabian Williamson to Boston in order to get Aardsma last January, and then invite him to spring training. He saved 38 games, tying Jon Papelbon of Boston for 4th in the American league and has made himself the Mariners Closer for some time to come.

Case 2: Firstbaseman Russell Branyan

Branyan had some promise when he first came up in the late-90s. In his first official year with Cleveland in 2000, he hit 16 home runs in 67 games. He then went on to top 20 homers and play over 100 over the next two seasons, only to never repeat those performances never again. Six years and 7 teams later, Branyan was a part time corner infielder for the Milwaukee Brewers and looked to finish out his career as a platoon/bench player.

He was signed by the Mariners as a free agent in December of last year and given the chance in spring training to prove himself an everyday firstbaseman. Branyan went on to lead the Mariners in home runs with 31 and is now being sought after for a one year extension.


Now, Patterson is a great example of a potential Zduriencik gambit that may payoff big as well. Patterson started with the Cubs in 2000 and became an everyday outfielder by 2002. he put up 24 homers in 2004 when he also managed to play in a career high 157 games. He moved to the Orioles in 2006, still playing everyday and stealing quite a few bags as well. However, when he moved to the Reds in 2008, his numbers saw a decline and in 2009, Patterson split time between the Nationals and the Brewers while hitting an abysmal .103 in a mere 16 games.

Patterson has a chance to play leftfield everyday, much like the chances Branyan and Aardsma were given. He has some speed and power that he could find again, and his fielding has also gained recognition from the front office. However, if this signing does not turn out to payoff, Patterson is not the same kind of high dollar/high risk that many previous Mariner free agent signing disasters have been.