RealGM

The 'major' financial players for 2012:

Felix $19.2
Ichiro $18
Figgins $9.5
Guti $5.8
Olivio $3.75

Not sure how much Smoak, Ackley, Pineda, etc., will be making under their existing deals.

The Silva/Bradley contract will finally come off the books, but Felix gets a healthy $8 mil bonus so not a ton of relief there. Jack Wilson is gonzo. Cust signed a 1-year deal, so did Bedard and a lot of relievers.

DA, Vargas, League, Rodriguez all go to arbitration, I think.

We have almost $50 mil tied into three players, one of them horrible. It "seems" that this front office wants to keep payroll in the $80-90 range, though it has gone over on occasion. If we use $85 mil as a 'template', or likely maximum 2012 payroll, and take away the 'major' salaries listed above, we're left with under $30 to build a team with. Again, not sure how much some of our youngsters will cost. Not sure how arbitration would go, if it goes that far.

How much money do you think we'll have left over to spend in the offseason? Any chance the change purse opens a little wider? I don't live in Seattle (or Washington) and don't pretend to be 'in the know'. Can we expect a Jack Cust-esqu FA bonanza, or something actually of significance?

It's sad that I'm thinking about this 9 days into the season.

I think they went on the cheap this off season because there was no one player that was going to come in here and turn this thing around and they are in full rebuilding mode. They are waiting for people like Milton and the money we payed the cubs and royals to get off the books and get this ship heading in the right direction in terms of paying the right people the large salaries. I for one am glade they didn't make any big splashes in the off season. When people like Jason Werth are getting $120 million its bets to let the other teams pay out the regrettable contracts so we aren't stuck with unproductive players like a Silva or Milton.

I have enough faith that this management group will make the right decisions on who to pay when the time is right. Its ok that we are struggling now. Had we gone through this five or six years ago with a management group that could draft the right players and evaluate talent then we would be a good team right now. There are no quick fixes in baseball and like it or not Bavsi left us with some terrible contracts and a massive deficit in talent at both the major and minor league levels.

Just think if we had drafted any of Ryan Zimmerman, Ryan Braun, or Troy Tulowitzki in 2005 over Jeff Clement like everyone in the world thought we would... Or if in 2006 we had drafted any of Clayton Kershaw, Drew Stubbs, or Tim Lincecum like everyone in the world thought we would then... we would be pretty good right now.

We never had one good draft under Bavasi. Give Jack time, the more drafts he gets the better and the talent will rise to the top.