Potential Offseason Moves: Free Agent Starting Pitchers

While there are many moves that could be made this off season to improve the Mariners this off season, starting pitching is the most glaring need. I'll address free agents moves for starting pitching, trades for starting pitching and other general roster moves. For this post I'm sticking with moves the Mariners could make on the slim free agent market for starting pitching.

We made two terrible off season moves last year to try and improve our starting pitching by signing Jeff "Nightmare" Weaver to an 8.3 million dollar one year deal and trading potential star reliever Rafael Soriano for Horacio "Oh No!" Ramirez. These two combined to be perhaps one of the worst 4 and 5 starting combos in Major League history. They obviously won't be back next season but they do need to be replaced somehow. Some people would say ANYONE WOULD BE BETTER THAN WEAVER AND RAMIREZ. However, that was essentially the thinking that got us those two nightmares on our team last off season so lets try and get out of that mindset.

This year's free agent pool for pitchers is slim at best. Which means that anybody that has had anything revealing some sort of success at the major league level won't be cheap (this is exactly the same reason why we gave Weaver so much money last off season). The best of who could be in the free agent pool (some of these players have options for next year) are: Freddy Garcia, Greg Maddux, Curt Schilling, Carlos Silva, Paul Byrd, Bartolo Colon, Randy Wolf and Jon Lieber.

I'll toss out the old guys who I really don't think would be a viable choice for the Mariners, so you can throw out Maddux, Schilling, Byrd and Lieber from this list. Although it could be viable to sign Maddux or Schilling for one year to help groom Morrow as a starter, I just don't think it's worth the money either of those guys will be demanding (assuming neither of them retire). Any of these older guys could be a solution until we can develop a couple of the young guys in our farm system, however, I think the younger four guys are a much more viable solution for the Mariners. So those four aside leaves us Freddy Garcia, Carlos Silva, Bartolo Colon and Randy Wolf. Slim pickings really considering there are 29 other MLB teams to compete with. I'll take a look at each of these guys stats in depth.

FREDDY GARCIA:

He's my personal pick for who we should go after the hardest. He had season ending shoulder surgery in August. While there is a risk he could never be the same pitcher after the surgery, I like him for two reasons. He is an 31 year old 8 year veteran, two time all-star and has won a WS with the White Sox. He is a former Mariner fan favorite when he started his career in Seattle. While he won't be exactly cheap I think he'll be well worth the money coming to the Mariners as the potential #1 or strong #2 behind Felix. His 2007 stats are anything but stunning but his career numbers are solid and I think he can come back from the surgery strong and be one of the solid starters the Mariners are in dire need of, not to mention a great mentor for Felix. Look for him to want more than the 3 year $27 million contract that just expired for him, probably somewhere between 10 and 12 million a year.

Here are his stats:

2007: 1-5, 5.90 ERA, 1.60 WHIP, 11 G, 58 IP, 74 H, 39 R, 12 HR, 19 BB, 50 K, 95.2 P/GS, .318 BAA

Career: 117-76, 4.07 ERA, 1.296 WHIP, 263 G, 12 CG, 4 SHO, 1701.2 IP, 1658 H, 814 R, 770 ER, 203 HR, 548 BB, 1252 SO

CARLOS SILVA:

Another viable option for the Mariners. He had pretty good stats this year on a very mediocre Twins team. He's a 5 year veteran and 28 years old. While he's never had any great seasons he is a solid candidate to be anywhere from the Mariners 3 to 5 starter next year. 36 walks in 202 innings and a 1.312 WHIP would be a giant improvement over Weaver or Ramirez. He'd probably be a little bit cheaper than Garcia but will still get a premium in this year's thin market. He'll be looking to get more than the $8.3 million we gave Weaver last year.

Here are his stats:

2007: 13-14, 4.19 ERA, 1.312 WHIP, 33 G, 33 GS, 2 CG, 1 SHO, 202 IP, 229 H, 99 R, 94 ER, 20 HR, 36 BB, 89 SO

Career: 55-46, 4.31 ERA, 1.368 WHIP, 259 G, 125 GS, 5 CG, 2 SHO, 2 SV, 945 IP, 1122 H, 489 R, 453 ER, 117 HR, 171 BB, 395 SO

BARTOLO COLON:

Colon is a 34 year old, 11 year veteran and former Cy Young winner. Colon has proven to be a viable pitcher in the Major Leagues. He does come with risk because he's been hampered by injuries the last two seasons but his last full season was a stellar one for the Angels when he won the AL Cy Young. Colon would probably be the biggest risk the Mariners could take but could come with the biggest reward if Colon can get back to his Cy Young form of 2005. By signing Colon we would be betting that he can successfully come back after struggling to come back this year from a torn rotator cuff. He also may be the most expensive option for the Mariners. Colon made $14 million in his injury shortened 2007 campaign. He would also be a great mentor for Felix. He could essentially show him what it means to be an effective power pitcher.

Here are his stats:

2007: 6-8, 6.34, 1.621 WHIP, 19 G, 18 GS, 99.3 IP, 132 H, 74 R, 70 ER, 15 HR, 29 BB, 76 SO

Career: 146-95, 309 G, 306 GS, 31 CG, 8 SHO, 1975.3 IP, 1955 H, 966 R, 899 ER, 238 HR, 679 BB, 1542 SO

RANDY WOLF:

This is the guy who is the biggest unknown for me. He is a 31 year old, 9 year veteran and one time all-star. Minus one season where he went 16-10 in 2003 he is a .500 pitcher for the most part. He as a decent career ERA and WHIP but his numbers really are nothing to brag about. Since I've never seen him pitch I don't really know anything about Wolf but he seems like the biggest risk that the Mariners could go after. He just seems to remind me too much of Ramirez or Weaver. I might be completely wrong with that but that is the feeling I get. Wolf also is the only one of these four guys I've mentioned that has a club option on his contract for $9 million for 2008. The Dodger very well may exercise that option. So Wolf may not even be a possibility for the Mariners. I'm guessing he'd be better than Ramirez or Weaver but who knows.

Here are his stats:

2007: 9-6, 4.73 ERA, 4.53 WHIP, 18 G, 18 GS, 102.7 IP, 110 H, 55 R, 54 ER, 10 HR, 39 BB, 94 SO

Career: 78-66, 4.34 ERA, 1.342 WHIP, 212 G, 208 GS, 11 CG, 7 SHO, 1277.7 IP, 1239 H, 642 R, 604 ER, 167 HR, 476 BB, 1065 SO

The pickings for the Mariners are certainly slim. There just aren't many quality free agent starting pitchers available. Personally I think that we should go after Garcia and Silva as hard as possible. We should also get into the bidding for Colon and Wolf (if the Dodgers don't exercise his option). If we pursue all of them hopefully we'll sign at least one of them. If we sign two of them it'd be even better because then we wouldn't have to rely on one of the young guys next year. I won't lie, I want us to get Garcia real bad and hope to see him in a Mariners uniform next year. I think he could be just the #1/#2 starter the Mariners need to be a real competitor next year. Not only would he be a great mentor for Felix, he would give him some competition at the top and hopefully push Felix to his full potential.