Seattle Mariners free agent Raul Ibanez has to decide by Sunday whether or not he’ll accept or decline Seattle’s arbitration offer.

Many of us have been salivating over the two draft picks Seattle would get in return for letting Raul sign with another team, but we may have been getting ahead of ourselves.

ESPN’s Buster Olney:

By Sunday, free agents who were offered arbitration by their 2008 teams must decide whether to accept or reject, leaving some baseball executives to play something of a guessing game. The consensus is that Manny Ramirez will reject arbitration, and Raul Ibanez and Jason Varitek will accept. The Mariners’ decision to offer arbitration to Ibanez now attaches draft-pick compensation to the veteran outfielder, and folks with other teams wonder if that’ll make him cost prohibitive, in the eyes of possible bidders. It was Zduriencik’s intention to reach out to Ibanez last night or today to talk with him, and discuss his situation.

Early in the offseason the consensus was that Ibanez would definitely decline arbitration with hopes of playing for a winner and signing a contract that would last him until he was ready to retire.  The market for Ibanez started out being better than expected, but there are two factors that are hindering Raul’s chances of getting a multi-year contract somewhere outside of Seattle.

One, more GMs seem to be putting a premium on defense this season than in years past.  Two, guys like Bobby Abreu, Adam Dunn and Pat Burrell weren’t offered arbitration.  While these guys will likely cost more in terms of dollars, they won’t cost their new teams draft picks, making them more appealing options than Raul (as if they weren’t already).

I’m a big Raul fan, and having him back again would be great for sentimental reasons.  It would also be good for the lineup.  The only problem is that he would probably return to left field, where his defense is bad enough to all but negate his offensive production.  Ideally he’d become the team’s first baseman or DH, but then you’re pushing Russell Branyan to the bench, or perhaps the outfield where he is also below average defensively.  Jeff Clement has to fit in somewhere as well.

We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, though.  The Cubs could certainly do us a solid by signing Raul muy pronto.