Early in the offseason there was a big debate as to what direction the Seattle Mariners franchise would head after GM Bill Bavasi was fired.  Would they rebuild?  Perhaps they’d just reload/retool?

The consensus was that a rebuild was coming, simply because that’s what bad teams do.  But then the point was made that Seattle can’t rebuild, at least not in the traditional sense.  Playing it by the book, Seattle would have to trade their highly paid veterans for as many prospects as possible.

The problem with that is that the highly paid veterans Seattle has are so bad and so overpaid that no one wants them.  Miguel Batista, Carlos Silva and Kenji Johjima are untradeable.  Jarrod Washburn would bring back hardly anything.  Injuries killed Erik Bedard and JJ Putz’s value.

The only players that even come close to fitting the mold are Adrian Beltre and Ichiro Suzuki, but Beltre is thought to be so underrated outside of Seattle that the Type-A compensatory picks garnered for letting him walk via free agency could outweigh any prospect package, and Ichiro’s skillset is such that most teams wouldn’t give up a ton for him, nor would they want to take on his massive contract.  Not to mention that the Mariners franchise would hate to lose his off the field contributions (endorsements, international TV contracts, etc).

The situation wasn’t perfect, but we all continued to talk about the upcoming rebuild, especially once Jack Zduriencik was hired as the new GM.

But even now a traditional rebuild seems impossible to pull off.  I’ve been thinking that Seattle would be more likely and better off reloading instead.

Well, I think there is a decent possibility that a lot of people are going to be surprised this offseason.

Rumor of the day, from Jason A. Churchill in the comments section at Prospect Insider (#20):

The M’s have called on several free agents, from what I can gather. An agent mentioned to me via email on Wednesday that Seattle has put feelers out on Teixeira, Sheets and Lowe, and have heard them connected to Penny, Wolf, Varitek – yes, Varitek – Pavano, Chad Cordero, Eddie Guardado, Giambi, Vizquel, Adam Everett and Casey Blake, and have talked trade with the Diamondbacks and Cardinals.

Some very interesting stuff there.

It seems possible that the front office suits have changed their opinion about big ticket free agents.  Back in September, President Chuck Armstrong mentioned CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira by name as two players Seattle would probably not be pursuing, but perhaps Zduriencik has convinced them otherwise, because since Zduriencik’s hiring both players have been connected to the Mariners; Teixeira above and by SI’s Jon Heyman, and Sabathia by Yahoo!’s Tim Brown.

The list of players provided by Churchill is very interesting.  I’ve either written about or had private conversations about the possibility of bringing in over half of these guys, and I think that Seattle could be on to something.

Some observations from this list:

Zduriencik and company must realize that Yuniesky Betancourt is one of the worst shortstops in baseball on both sides of the ball, and they’d rather have an all-defense player there instead.  I fully agree with this and have written that I’d rather sign Cesar Izturis than give Betancourt another shot, but Adam Everett is an even better defender.  Vizquel has lost a step or three but he is still a defensive asset.  The best part is that either guy would come dirt cheap.

Notice all the injured pitchers on this list.  Starters Ben Sheets, Brad Penny and Carl Pavano all have shown top of the rotation stuff at times and have put together great seasons, but will all be signed relatively cheap because of injury histories.  Pavano will definitely be signed to a one year deal, and its not hard to imagine Penny on a single season deal either.

Reliever Chad Cordero is in the same boat.  I’ve already written about a situation in which Seattle deals Putz and signs Cordero as his replacement.  It would be a great move, especially if Seattle could flip Cordero at the deadline or the following offseason.  Any of these would be great low-risk/high-reward signings, whether that reward is on-field performance or future bounties.

We’ve discussed Giambi and how he’d be a great fit at DH, and we’ve talked about Guardado as well.

The names I don’t quite understand are Lowe and Varitek, and to a lesser extent Blake and Wolf.  Lowe has also been linked to Seattle by Heyman.  I love Lowe, but at 35 years old he isn’t a good idea, especially if he gets the massive dollars and 5 years that are rumored.  We have far too many catchers for Varitek to make sense, especially at the ridiculous dollar amounts agent Scott Boras is pushing.  Blake could help the Mariners, but I think he’s going to be paid far more than what he is worth this offseason based on his versatility and a weak 3B market.  Wolf just seems unnecessary.

Now, just because Seattle has been “connected” to these teams or “put out feelers,” it doesn’t mean they are actively pursuing any of them.  That said, I will take it to mean that this team isn’t willing to sit around and play non-prospects like Jeremy Reed or Bryan LaHair.  They’re going to either field a legitimate prospect or fill the hole with a productive major leaguer.

I can hear some of you groaning already, taking these rumors as a step in the wrong direction, but it doesn’t have to be looked at that way.  Seattle can reload and rebuild at the same time.

As mentioned at the top of the post, Seattle isn’t in the ideal rebuilding situation, so they have to get creative with it.

An example: Trade Adrian Beltre.  Sign Joe Crede to a one or two year deal.  Seattle gets prospects for Beltre, and ends up with a new third baseman that is very comparable offensively and defensively, and almost certainly cheaper.  Then, you can either trade Crede later on or take the compensatory draft picks if he becomes a Type-A free agent.  All the while Seattle doesn’t have to rush Matt Tuiasosopo, who needs more time at AAA.  Seattle adds prospects from two different sources without changing the long term plan for the third base position.

Seattle can do the same thing at empty positions.  Instead of sticking with a non-prospect who won’t be anything more than a bench player in the future, you can hire a better player as a stopgap to a legitimate prospect.  Doing so improves the team in the short term without jeopardizing the future.

I wouldn’t trust such a plan to Bill Bavasi, but I think Zduriencik can handle it.

Seattle could still be very conservative this offseason and may very well commit to rebuilding, whatever that means in our situation, but don’t be surprised if this team does make a splash.

This could be a very interesting offseason.