Mariners Make Another Unpopular Move

One week after pissing off fans of evolution and above-average DH production by signing Carl Everett, the Mariners agreed to pay Jarrod (rhymes with "Herod") Washburn $36 million for his unique brand of stultifyingly mediocre pitching.

And the masses are in revolt.

Art Thiel, writing in the Seattle P-I, says that the M's overpaid for Washburn. This is true. As Thiel points out, mediocre Washburn will make more than White Sox ace Freddy Garcia.

At the goodship U.S.S. Mariner, they make a convincing case that Washburn's damn fine 3.20 ERA--one of his main selling points--was dumb luck.

Then again, as Deanna at Seattle "Marinerds" opines, Washburn is cute. He's also a better starting pitcher than Ryan Franklin, Gil Meche, Aaron Sele, or Joel Piniero, who, put together, started 107 of the Mariners' 162 games last year. How did we ever survive?

So, though it's true that the M's overpaid, though it's true that Washburn is a mediocre pitcher, and though it's true that cuteness does NOT a Cy Young winner make, the addition of Washburn, like the addition of Everett, improves the team.

This is in stark contrast to many recent Mariner moves--trading Carlos Guillen for Ramon Santiago, making Pat Borders the starting catcher, inexplicably benching Mike Morse--which have made the team worse.

Here at Seattlest, we choose to look on the bright side. At least M's management is now making the team better. 25 starts by Washburn (something he's managed each of the last five years) sure as hell beats 25 starts by some of the other rotation candidates. Though we'd still rather have Freddy back.