We haven’t talked much (if at all) about Orlando Hudson as a potential free agent target for the Seattle Mariners this offseason.  We haven’t had much of a reason to.  Last offseason we might have predicted him as a top target for us a year later, but Jose Lopez emerged as a legitimate bat and bought himself another year.  However, now that new manager Don Wakamatsu has stated that Lopez could become a full-time first baseman in 2009, Hudson suddenly becomes a viable option once again.

Hudson is generally regarded as one of the best fielders in the game.  He’s slipped in recent years, and the various fielding metrics are all over the map on him.  John Dewan’s +/- system pegged him as a great defender as recently as 2007.  bUZR hasn’t had him as an above average glove since before he moved to the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2006.  PMR is the only one of the three that has him as a plus defender this year, but he still landed in the middle of the pack.  Either way, the chances of him being a defensive upgrade over Lopez are still high even at age 31, and it’s entirely possible that he rebounds enough to become a great defender once again.

Fortunately, the defense isn’t the only thing he offers at this point in his career.  Hudson, a switch hitter, can hit for a decent average and would have the highest walk rate on the Mariners right now by a good 2%.  He’s got some gap power as well, and would plug in great in the 2-hole behind Ichiro.

The market for Hudson is very small right now, and contains a lot of ifs.  The Washington Nationals are interested, but only if they don’t land Mark Teixeira or perhaps Adam Dunn.  The New York Mets like him, but they’ll only pursue if they can move Luis Castillo and his awful contract.  The Kansas City Royals want him, but would have to find a taker for Jose Guillen.

The Cleveland Indians and Los Angeles Dodgers were interested at one point, but have already moved on and are unlikely to reconsider.  The New York Yankees were thought to be shopping Robinson Cano for pitching, in which case they’d sign Hudson as a replacement.  Obviously the free agent acquisitions of CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett erase that possibility.

The San Francisco Giants were interested at one point, though I’m not sure if the signing of Edgar Renteria changes things.  Other teams that seem to have a fit would include the Colorado Rockies, St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago White Sox and the Arizona Diamondbacks, but none of those teams have been connected to him recently.  (Of those teams, I’d bet that the White Sox are most likely to increase their interest.)

Basically, there doesn’t seem to be any teams that want Hudson under any circumstances.  It’s not that he’s a bad player (obviously); he just picked a bad year to become a free agent.

Initial reports were saying that he was looking for something close to $15M annually.  The chances of him getting anything close to that seem pretty remote, and I’d expect him to receive $8-10M annually instead.  Perhaps his injury history keeps the price down to the lower end of that range.

If his wrist is healthy and doesn’t affect his offensive game, a 3 year deal worth ~$27M seems like a pretty good deal to me.  I wouldn’t go longer than 3 years though, and fortunately it doesn’t seem like it would be necessary.  Hey, maybe he can be snagged on a two year deal with the way the market is looking for him!

For what it’s worth, Matthew Carruth (of StatCorner and Lookout Landing fame) valued Hudson at between $11-17.5M per season in a post at FanGraphs.

Hudson is getting a bit old, but I would love to have him and his hilarious personality in a Seattle Mariners uniform next season.