Two More Options to Help the Rotation

We all knew going into the offseason that the pickings would be slim this year when it came to acquiring starting pitching. Short of pulling off a blockbuster trade for Santana or Bedard, we all knew that there wasn't a great chance of the Mariners improving their rotation much past mediocre. That being said there are still some free agent pitchers available that could be viable options as 4 or 5 starters for the Mariners next year. After losing out on Kuroda and trade talks seemingly going nowhere right now the Mariners should persue two of the few healthy free agent starters left, Carlos Silva and Kyle Lohse.

While neither of these guys is likely to come to the Mariners and turn them into instant contenders I think they could be more viable options than fixing our problems from within.

Here's a look at both pitchers:

Carlos Silva:
55-46, 4.31 ERA, 102 ERA +, 1.36 WHIP, 259 G, 125 GS, 5 CG, 945 IP, 1122 H, 489 R, 171 BB, 395 SO

While those numbers aren't absolutely stunning they aren't bad either. An above .500 career record, sub 5.00 ERA and ERA + of just over 100 are pretty good traits for a potential 4/5 starter. The worst thing about Silva is most likely going to be the price tag. Right now he's one of the best healthy free agents pitchers available in a slim market with lots of suitors. This will no doubt drive the price of Silva up. The potential of another Weaver disaster is there with Silva but I think that at this point the Mariners could have no choice but to aggresively pursue him.

Kyle Lohse:
63-74, 4.57 ERA, 95 ERA +, 1.443 WHIP, 218 G, 195 GS, 6 CG, 1164 IP, 1302 H, 664 R, 365 BB, 734 SO

These number are clearly inferior to Silva's. A sub .500 win percentage, sub 100 ERA+ and 1.443 WHIP are far from great. The risk is even greater for the Mariners in signing Lohse. I can see Jeff Weaver written all over Lohse. Lohse would be my second choice behind Silva. Hopefully Lohse would come cheaper than Silva but in this years free agent market it probably wouldn't be much cheaper.

These are two more options for the Mariners that would keep them from having to go with some combination of Morrow, Baek, RRS and Dickey as the 4 and 5 starters. Of course the Mariners could always go really risky and high price and persue Bartolo Colon or Livan Hernandez...