Death Continues To Lurk In Center Over The Next 4 Years

I think it’s really important that as this team recovers from the years of being in a coma, we emerge forward into a new baseball era in Seattle with players that we can get behind such as Gutierrez. As you may have heard Franklin Gutierrez signed a 4-year extension buying out his arbitration eligible years, 1 year of free agency, and there is a team option for a fifth year.

Yes, I did write the other day about expecting Gutierrez to have a down year. Most likely having issues repeating defensively the year he had last year. Please understand that it’s not because he isn’t as good as the way he performed or that it was a fluke. He just simply put up completely insane numbers and managed to consistently get to balls no other player in the last decade has been able to get to. That doesn’t mean I don’t like him and it certainly shouldn’t be taken to mean that he isn’t a good player.

Offensively, His bat still has development left which is very exciting. He is making improvements on his swing and I believe the power will continue to develop over the length of his contract. I’m a little surprised at the overall expression of Mariner fans for this deal. This is something to get very excited about. He should in two years give the Mariners more value than what they are paying him for 4-years.

Jack Zduriencik should again be applauded at yet another smart move. He’s paying just 20 million dollars for nearly 50 million dollars worth of production. That’s of course estimating Gutierrez as a 3 WAR over the course of his contract – I think he’s much closer to a 4-5 WAR player with his amazing defense. Simply awesome value and with a price controlled contract.

Maybe, with the Kotchman deal going down and Randy’s announcement of retirement this story got down played a bit. That’s alright, both deals should have gotten attention as they both were important. Kotchman could end up playing a pivotal role this coming year. Oh, and Randy Johnson was the most important pitcher ever in the history of the Seattle Mariners organization.

But, now with both announcements digested lets get excited about things dying in center field more often than they should over the next 4 – 5 years.