From Jim Street:

“I would certainly love an opportunity to start,” Heilman said, “but it looks like we have an abundance of starters right now. We’ll just have to see what happens in Spring Training. I’ve had some success in the bullpen and have learned to be comfortable with it.”

The Mariners currently have right-handers Felix Hernandez, Carlos Silva and Brandon Morrow and left-handers Erik Bedard, Jarrod Washburn and Ryan Rowland-Smith penciled in as potential starters.

Heilman would make it seven candidates for five slots.

“If I can’t start, then closing would be the next-best thing,” Heilman said.

The final decision will be made by manager Don Wakamatsu and pitching coach Rick Adair, with plenty of input from general manager Jack Zduriencik.

“I wouldn’t discount him starting, but as of right now, we have to look to see what we do at the other [relief] positions,” Wakamatsu said. “But he has closing experience.”

With Putz going to the Mets in the trade, the Mariners must find someone to hand the ball to with a lead in the final inning, and Heilman is one of the possibilities. He’s 9-for-25 in save situations, but only a few of them were in the final inning of a game.

Wakamatsu said Heilman, Miguel Batista and Mark Lowe are the primary closing candidates at the moment, but the manager believes things will sort themselves out during Spring Training.

Some of the New York fans and media have painted Heilman as a crybaby who demanded to be traded somewhere that he could start.  Sure, he wants to start, but it would be idiotic to not accept a chance to be a closer, which is the second best way to earn a big paycheck in free agency.  I don’t think Heilman will be a problem in Seattle.

I also agree with Wakamatsu’s top three closing candidates.  I’ve written that I’d be happy with either Lowe or Heilman in the closer’s role for 2009, but haven’t talked much about Batista.

We’ve all come to hate Batista and his albatross of a contract, but closing might be a decent fit for him in 2009 for a couple of reasons.

One, he pitched much better in relief last season than as a starter, limiting hitters to a .202 batting average when coming out of the ‘pen compared to .316 as a starter.  Batista is the type of guy whose stuff plays up as a reliever, and that was illustrated in part by the rise in strikeouts (~12% as starter, ~18% as reliever).  If you want to go the experience route, Batista also has 38 career saves, and was the Blue Jays’ closer in 2005.

Two, pitching him in high leverage situations may be the only way to move him this season.  If Seattle uses him as a middle reliever or for mop up duty, no one is going to want him come July.  If he proves he can be an adequate back-end reliever, he has some value.

That said, Seattle doesn’t really have to move him at all.  His contract is expiring at season’s end anyway, so it’s really only a matter of saving $4-5M dollars, which would be great, but it’s not the same as trying to dump Jarrod Washburn last summer.  However, if Seattle could get even a fringe prospect in return for Batista, that could be considered a victory in my opinion.