A lot of names have been thrown around in regards to Seattle’s latest mystery pursuit, but one name has suddenly become particularly interesting to me: SS Orlando Cabrera.

I’ve never been a fan of Cabrera’s.  I can’t explain it, but he has always just rubbed me the wrong way.  Besides my own personal bias, there are other reasons not to be on board with a potential signing.  He is 34 years old, after all, and has been regressing offensively since his Montreal Expos days.  And, of course, he carries the dreaded Type-A tag.

I wouldn’t have been 100% on board with a Cabrera signing but a couple hours ago, but I was discussing the possibility with Rob T. and he made a very interesting (and seemingly obvious) point that has caused me to believe this guy would make a good signing.

Cabrera was supposedly looking for Rafael Furcal money coming into the offseason, but his Type-A status has denied him of a market.  As far as I know, no teams have really made a serious run at him.  Instead of getting multiple years and big dollars, he may have to sign a cheap one year contract just to remain employed in 2009.

Still, you wouldn’t want Seattle to give up their 2nd round pick to sign Cabrera, would you?  Not at first glance, but Rob’s point puts a completely different spin on the situation.

Let’s say Seattle signs Cabrera to a one year contract for much cheaper than expected ($5-8M or less).  The Chicago White Sox get Seattle’s 2009 2nd rounder.  Cabrera plays his one year in Seattle and re-enters the market.  If he has a decent season in 2009, chances are he’ll still be a Type-A free agent.  Some other team caves and signs him, and the Mariners improve on that 2nd round draft pick that they lost as they receive a 2010 sandwich pick (which alone is a few slots ahead of the 2nd round pick) plus either a 1st round pick or a 2nd round pick.

If Cabrera manages to struggle enough in 2009 that he falls to Type-B status, Seattle would still improve on the 2009 pick with a 2010 sandwich pick.

By signing Cabrera, Seattle betters their draft position with the only hindrance being that they have to wait one year, which really isn’t a bad thing considering that the 2010 draft is expected to be deeper in the 1st and 2nd round than the 2009 draft.

Smart teams take advantage of the flawed compensation system, and this is just another way to do it.

Of course, all of this compensation talk is dependent on Cabrera declining arbitration at the end of the season, but I think he would indeed decline in hopes of recovering some of the money/guarantee that he didn’t get this offseason.  As far as I’m concerned the franchise can cross that bridge when they get to it.

Recap: Seattle can potentially get more value out of their draft picks by signing Cabrera to an affordable one year contract, not to mention that Cabrera is a big time upgrade over Yuni Betancourt!

Cabrera is a more effective hitter (who walks more than twice as much) and is worlds better defensively.  I doubt anyone out there is going to claim that Betancourt is better than Cabrera, so I won’t take away from the point of the post to detail Cabrera’s superiority, but a simple way to look at it is that FanGraphs’ Value Wins converted to dollars has Cabrera worth $8.6M more than Betancourt last season.

So, does this slightly different look at the Type-A deterrent change anyone’s mind about Cabrera?  After thinking about it like this, Rob and I are on board if GM Jack Zduriencik can sign Cabrera to a one year deal.

Note: If Cabrera is to sign a one year deal, I don’t expect him to be the mystery free agent.  Before settling for a one year contract he’s going to exhaust all of his other options first.  Could he have given up already?  I doubt it, though Spring Training is just five weeks away.