Moving on from Hamilton … or not?

By Shannon Drayer

Jack Zduriencik indicated Friday night in a piece by Greg Johns at Mariners.com that he did not see Seattle being a major player for the services of Josh Hamilton.

For someone who has kept all player negotiations very close to the vest this was a little bit of a surprise, although indications that this was the Mariners’ thinking had been out there for some time. As I said last week, the impression that I got from those I talked to was that the Mariners were interested but would not break the bank for Hamilton. There were too many question marks to go beyond what they thought would be a comfortable deal with him in terms of years.

There are other teams, no doubt, with the same thinking and because of this it may take some time for the market for Hamilton to be established. This is a concern, Zduriencik told Johns.

“You have to be realistic about how you’re going to allocate your dollars,” he said. “Some of these things drag out and if you’re sitting there waiting on one chip, other chips in front of you might go away and you end up with nothing.”

We certainly wouldn’t want to see the Mariners end up with nothing. Let the market unfold and see where you are at. This is not “the guy” in Zduriencik’s eyes. Maybe he is for the short term but on a longer deal? No. If Zduriencik thinks this will go in that direction then it would be foolish to invest too much time in him now. He can always jump back in and who knows, maybe these words will help get things going.