With the fantastic news breaking last night that Felix Hernandez and the Mariners have agreed to a long term contract, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at what our depth charts could potentially look like over each of the next few years, solely in terms of players that we have locked up as of now. Obviously, trades happen, free agent signings happen, and injuries happen, so this is nothing more than a theoretical look into the future.

Also, keep in mind that I’m not factoring in any prospects who may or may not break into the big leagues over the next few seasons, excluding Dustin Ackley. While there are clearly a few significant ones that will likely arrive before 2013, if I tried to pick and choose it would just get too confusing.

2011:

C: Adam Moore, Rob Johnson

1B: Casey Kotchman, Mike Carp

2B: Jose Lopez ($4.5 million club option), Dustin Ackley

3B: Chone Figgins

SS: Jack Wilson

LF: Michael Saunders, Milton Bradley

CF: Franklin Gutierrez

RF: Ichiro

DH: Milton Bradley, Mike Carp

SP: Felix Hernandez, Ryan Rowland-Smith, Ian Snell ($6.75 million club option), Jason Vargas, Doug Fister

RP: David Aardsma, Mark Lowe, Brandon League, Sean White, Shawn Kelley, Garrett Olson, Kanekoa Texeira, Yusmeiro Petit

The one gaping hole here is starting pitching, as it’s basically Felix and 4 back-end starters. Fortunately, the 2011 free agent class has a good amount of quality starting pitchers, including Josh Beckett, Cliff Lee, Javier Vazquez, and Brandon Webb.

2012:

C: Adam Moore, Rob Johnson

1B: Mike Carp

2B: Dustin Ackley

3B: Chone Figgins

SS: ???

LF: Michael Saunders

CF: Franklin Gutierrez

RF: Ichiro

DH: Mike Carp?

SP: Felix Hernandez, Ryan Rowland-Smith, Ian Snell ($9.25 million club option(hahaha)), Doug Fister, Jason Vargas

RP: David Aardsma, Mark Lowe, Shawn Kelley, Sean White, Brandon League, Garrett Olson, Yusmeiro Petit, Kanekoa Texeira

This one doesn’t look so good. No shortstop, Mike Carp as both our first baseman and DH, and again no starting pitching behind Felix. Lot’s of holes to fill, but obviously this doesn’t take into account any of the moves that will be made between now and 2012. Once again, not entirely sure what the point to this is, but it’s interesting to me.

2013:

C: Adam Moore, Rob johnson

1B: Mike Carp

2B: Dustin Ackley

3B: Chone Figgins

SS: ???

LF: Michael Saunders

CF: Franklin Gutierrez

RF: ???

DH: Mike Carp

SP: Felix Hernandez, Ryan Rowland-Smith, Doug Fister, Jason Vargas, Garrett Olson

RP: Sean White, Shawn Kelley, Yusmeiro Petit, Kanekoa Texeira

Well, obviously you can tell just by glancing at this that the Mariners have a fair amount of moves to make between now and 2013, but most of us probably already knew that. The other thing that becomes apparent while looking at this otherwise pointless post, though, is that the Mariners now have a quite good, mostly young core to build around. There’s no guarantee that Ichiro stays a Mariner past 2012 – although I’d be shocked if he didn’t -  but even if you don’t include him, that core, which could remain fully intact through at least 2013, still consists of Felix Hernandez, Franklin Gutierrez, Michael Saunders, Dustin Ackley, Chone Figgins, and Adam Moore.

There always going to be question marks going forward, no matter what team you root for, but as M’s fans we can rest assured that GMZ & crew are going to have a very talented group of players to shape their club around.