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Bedard, Mariners Have Agreement, Pending Physical

This one gives you a good opportunity to practice your French, or your Google. Via Marc Brassard, who writes for Le Droit, the only French-language newspaper in Ontario (loosely translated, of course):

If he successfully passes a physical exam today in Arizona, Erik Bedard will be back with the Seattle Mariners in 2010.
...
The lefty pitcher from Navan [Ontario] confirmed he had accepted a one year contract for $ 1.5 million to remain with the club.
...
"I'm really happy it was my first choice but to return to Seattle, he said yesterday as he was en route to Peoria, Arizona.
...
Bedard was not familiar with the details of the contract he will sign, but there are bonuses for each period of 30 days when he finds himself with the Mariners, and others to the number of innings .

So this is pretty sweet news, and further confirmation of the fact that, if someone in the Mariner front office says anything remotely interesting about a possible roster move, the move is pretty much already done.

0 recs  |  203 comments

Comments

Way to be on the ball, Sullivan.

Get some rest so you can celebrate Canadian style tomorrow.

I'm not sure why I'm awake.

Well, yeah I do. Anyway, awesome!

This is worse than other signings in terms of anticipation

For everyone else we sign, we only have to wait until opening day to start watching them produce (or not). We gotta wait like…um…carry the two…4 or 5 months before we can see him back in action? Yikes.

It's like getting another Christmas

I like having the rewards spread out over time, rather than all at once. Allows you to focus on and fully appreciate each one.

Plus rehab starts, hopefully in Tacoma

One more exciting thing to go see down there this year

YESYESYES
I was thinking this as well...
Good point

The last time I went to Tacoma for more than one game in a season was to watch Felix.

Totally

My first Tacoma game was an RR-S rehab start. I could definitely do that again.

Finally, working nights pays off on being on the ground floor of patented Zduriencik Awesome
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!

Do most people here like Bedard?

I don’t hate him, and he’s quite good when he’s healthy, so I like this contract, and it seems like most people here like Bedard, but other forums and stuff like that, it seems like the fans hate him (likely because of the trade that brought him to Seattle). Am I observing correctly?

Indeed you are

We like him. Smart people like him.

Exactly

It’s completely irrational to dislike him simply because we got fleeced on the trade. Bedard was simply a player in the trade and not the man, excuse me, complete idiot who pulled it off. It still amazes me how many people don’t want Bedard back simply because of how bad that trade went down. We all know how great of a pitcher he is. This is a bargain basement deal. Great job again GMZ.

Everyone loves The Interview

Seriously though, I think that while The Trade was almost universally reviled here, most people here could separate The Trade with Erik as a baseball player. So, we can appreciate his awesomeness where some others can’t emotionally divide the two. Plus, 1.5mil? Talk about low risk high reward.

Indeed

it is so great to be an M’s fan – looking forward to Trader Jack’s next move!

Some blowhards in the Seattle Media don't like Bedard

And on “other forums and stuff like that” there tend to be a lot of people who let talk radio make up their minds for them. This isn’t even about the deal (at the time, a lot of them were in favor of it because all Seattle was giving away was “just unproven prospects”) it’s because Bedard wasn’t very useful to the media, refusing to answer stupid questions thus making them work harder, and generally being something other than the fun-loving prankster goofball that fits their archetypic preconceptions. So certain talk jocks disliked him, and thus the people who abdicate their brains to talk jocks disliked him too.

The deal still drives those opinions, though.

The fact that the talk radio guys, Seattle Times commenters and other fans were so in favor of the trade means they now have to either admit that they were dead-wrong or just blame it on some circumstance that no one possibly could have foreseen.

Bedard was supposed to win 25 games a season for us, because he had that one good season and therefore was an elite, unbeatable pitcher going forward. But when he came to Seattle, he refused to be a leader like he was in Baltimore, refused to go deep into games like he did in Baltimore, wasn’t a very good interview like he was in Baltimore, and so on. None of those things was ever true about Bedard in Baltimore, but many of the people who championed the trade had selective memory. Then, when he got hurt, people said he was soft. “Doesn’t he know how much we gave up for him?!? Man up, Erik!”

Basically, I think of three points that many people overlooked and continue to overlook when talking about Bedard’s time in Seattle:

1. He was a huge injury risk when we traded for him and will always be.
2. He did not come to Seattle voluntarily.
3. He didn’t make a ton of money, and the money he did make was essentially scripted by the way the arbitration system works. He wasn’t a free agent who demanded a bunch of money then stopped trying. He’s just a guy trying to play baseball.

The fact that the Bedard trade was such a massive failure had very little to do with anything under Bedard’s control. I think people who understand that tend to defend the man.

But the "pitching through pain" idiots

Think he gave up, or didn’t try hard enough, or something like that (I don’t know, it doesn’t make sense to me and I try not to be places where those kinds of opinions proliferate). I get your argument, that people had erroneous preconceived notions about what he was and therefore mis-valued the trade (and then expected him to live up to those impossible notions for the trade to work out the way they thought it would). But I think that was the just the inner core of that contingent. A fair number of people accumulated around it after the deal was done, and their opinions were entirely based on his performance (or perceived unwillingness to perform) while he was here, completely separate from the deal that brought him here. Those people probably couldn’t even tell you what the M’s gave up to get him, and also refuse to believe he was worth the salary he earned in his time here.

But really, arguing about how idiots think

Is kind of silly, I guess.

I guess I'm saying that if Bedard had been called up from the Rainiers, no one would have cared that he was a camera-shy, injury-prone smartass.

Whether or not people grasped just how valuable the Jones-Tillman-etc. package was, everyone knew that Erik Bedard had just come off a really good season, and the trade was a big deal. Even a half-assed Mariners fan knew that a lot was expected of Bedard.

It's not his fault Bavasi is completely incompetent.
I like how Bedard doesn't know his own contract
Somebody's willing to give me money? Okay.
Sounds like he wanted to be back in Seattle.

What a change from 2008 (and he who shall not be named).

Why would he? It might be 30 pages of legal jargon no one but a second year could figure out.

Or it could be written on the back of an napkin.

I just feel like the money part would be kind of important
Does anyone really think Bedard will reach the usual inning incentives?

Bedard is a great pitcher when he is healthy. I really hope he is healthy and able to show Seattle what he is able to do. Washburn sucked for years then had 3 good months and a bunch of fans are demanding he comes back.

If I was Bedard or his agent I would be looking at the base and not counting on getting any bonuses.

It sounds like his incentives are anything but "usual"

His incentives are likely to be geared around productively rehabbing and getting back to the team as early as possible in June, then staying healthy and pitching every 5 days through the rest of the season. Willing to bet there’s a bonus for being healthy in the playoffs, too. I wouldn’t be surprised if combined they bring the total value of the contract to $4 million if he meets them all – though that’s a huge if.

And now I read below.

$7.5 million feels steep…

But if he meets them all, then that would imply he's pitching effectively, in which case.... yay!
Yeah if he pitches well enough/stays healthy enough to meet all of those incentives he's going to be worth that money to us and then some
Yeah if he can pitch a full season he is probably going be worth a lot more than 7.5 mil
Let's not get carried away here; he's not pitching a full season under any circumstances.
I'm just saying that he'll definitely be worth this contract no matter how much he pitches

as long as he makes his 1.5 mil base salary worth in (probably ~ a month)

Maybe he's got a sugar mama
They showed him a picture of a big stack of loonies
Maybe they're paying him in Canadian Tire money
Maybe he just doesn't know the exchange rate.
To be fair

The French says that he wasn’t familiar with all the details of the contract. Bedard does say in the article that if all goes well, he should make about the same as he did last year ($7.5 million).

Well what he actually says:
Bedard was not familiar with the details of the contract he will sign, but there are bonuses for each period of 30 days when he finds himself in alignment Mariners, and others to the number of innings . " Si tout va bien, il ya moyen que je fasse à peu près le même salaire que l’an passé ", a dit celui qui a empoché 7,5 millions $ (US) en 2009, saison où il a présenté une fiche de 5-3 avec une moyenne de points mérités de 2,82 et 90 retraits sur des prises en 15 départs avant d’être blessé. “Hopefully, there are ways that I do roughly the same salary as last year,” said one who has pocketed $ 7.5 million (U.S.) in 2009 season when he presented a sheet 5-3 with an ERA of 2.82 and 90 strikeouts in 15 starts before being injured.

That doesn’t really say anything at all.

So copying and pasting from Google Translate is funny

Whatever, got the money quote.

It's ten years since I spoke any french but
Si tout va bien, il ya moyen que je fasse à peu près le même salaire que l’an passé

means something like “if all goes well, there’s a way that I make at least as much as last year”

I should really read the upthread comments when I Z through
Christ.

I’m boxing myself for the day.

PARRRRRRTYYYYY
I'm ready to pretend 2008 and 2009 didn't happen and that we just picked up Erik Bedard from free agency.

What a steal.

This Bedard guy, I hear he's pretty good.

This is one of the moves I actually managed to anticipate a little this off-season. Now I just want it to pay off.

Another thing I love about this move is that it ensures USSM can't keep a depth chart up for 12 freaking hours without it becoming obsolete.
Tango or Tony

Probably have the RSS feed on their desktops. As soon as the depth chart goes up, they pick up the phone and say it’s ok to announce the next deal. They don’t hate USSM, they just like messing with them.

Really, they should do one daily in order to keep things really interesting.
Welcome back Erik.

The idea Bedard, King Felix and Cliff Lee as our playoff rotation, makes me go all tingly in my underpants.

You'll have to wait on that particular tingle until July.

Hope you can find other tingles until then. Assuming tingles in your underpants are important to you

Well really he'd have to wait until October for that particular tingle
This is awesome news, just think there may be times this year where we sent Felix/Lee/Bedard against a team at Safeco in a three game series.

I am also delighted that I [hopefully] haven’t seen the last of that wonderful curveball.

Also, a front page post at this time of the day?!?! GMT! GMT!

I now know how you feel in reverse.
I guess the question now is what kind of standards do they use for the physical exam

Would be a shame if he fails becauce he won’t be able to start in april.

The Mariners medical staff has been handling his rehab so they're probably well aware of where his shoulder's at

I don’t think they’ll hold him to that standard.

Hopefully not the same standards the Mets had for J.J
Not the Mets standard, no

Because from what I can tell, the M’s medical staff and front office actually function in a competent way.

If Bedard has been rehabbing at home or whatever, it may be a few weeks since the M’s have seen him. Who knows, he might’ve crushed his pitching thumb swinging a hammer with his good shoulder (or worse, tried swinging a hammer with his bad shoulder). Wasn’t he building a house or something.

Anyway, because he’s been under M’s medical care it should be a formality, but that doesn’t make it optional.

Just hope

Bedard does not end up like the 2010 version of Pokey Reese. knocking on wood throwing salt over shoulder

The neat thing is that no start by the 5th starter (or an imploding Snell...) will truly get me down

…since I can now say “but in a few weeks, this guy will be bumped out of the rotation by Erik”.

The other neat thing is that after observing how cautious and thorough the staff were in handling RRS last year, I have faith that Erik won’t be rushed back into action. When we do see him, he’s going to be as healthy as possible.

That's a big concern, especially with incentives

We’re relying a lot on our pitching coaches to be able to recognize when he’s REALLY ready and not just sort-of ready. I don’t want Bedard’s incentives to start accumulating while he’s still getting in the groove so to speak.

If he's effective and doesn't get re-injured, why would it matter?
I am pleased!
What I love about this is it took less than 24 hours from first sniff to final confirmation

as opposed to the last deal that brought Bedard to Seattle, which was like cutting your own hand off at the wrist with a swiss army knife.

The bottle opener part of the Swiss Army Knife.
The prcess sucks so much that when you're done it's kind of awesome even though you've handicapped yourself
I guess that's sort of like the Bedard trade.

He did pitch pretty awesome, when he did pitch. And the story isn’t over now!

Or maybe the toothpick.
By te way, artilleur is an awesome term for pitcher.

The french should really play more baseball.

However moyenne de pointes merites is even more retarded sounding in a foreign language
Yeah, it would seem to suit them

Lots of sitting around with time to kill, philosophizing and otherwise building air castles. Lots of failure and angst. Not enough surrendering, though.

Hmmm, maybe we’ve been looking at Snell all wrong. He just needs a bicycle, a baguette, and a beret.

We could just steal the word from them, mispronounce it and make it our own in true American fashion
Like they never do that

Listen to French rap sometime. It’s hilarious. “Le shout-out” and “Je vais fuck you up”

As is the Spanish lanzador

I don’t know Spanish, but I know “el mejor lanzador de la Liga Americana”.

EriKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK is baKKKKKKKKKK!
Bedard! YAY!

Also, I love the tight-lippedness of our front office. As Jeff says, it makes it somewhat easier to read what move they are thinking of in that if someone says something even remotely interesting about a player, then a move is probably close at hand.

Can't fucking believe

Jim Street with the hot rumor….

My favorite part about that...

was like 2 weeks ago in his mailbag he said, “My guess is that the only way Bedard, a free agent, returns to Seattle is with a visiting team … probably best for both sides to just turn the page and move on.” Classic.

I have my doubts...

…that Bedard will return to form—labrum injuries have a history of killing careers.

But I have no doubts about the process used to get him. Cheap. Low risk. Medium to high return. Absolutely nothing wrong with that.

I can never argue with a good process.

No matter the outcome of this deal, I can’t knock the process. Where the hell is that chart, anyway?

Agree, this is a good decision

I forget the name of the former Oakland & SD assistant GM(he was a GM as well, but don’t remember where either) who has a thought matrix which states a good thought process can have bad results which is bad luck. You can have a bad thought process like Bavasi did in 2006 and end up with good results which is dumb luck.

Whether Bedard contributes or not, the thought process behind the signing is a good one. It is a very low risk and has potential for a very high reward. Who would you want pitching game three of a playoff series against the Yankees? Washburn or Bedard?

LStone kindly reminds us

of Schilling and Carpenter’s returns from labrum surgery

Yeah, I was thinking of Schilling

Forgot about Carpenter. But shoulders certainly are tricky, general medical progress or not. Bedard is always going to be fragile, and it would be a sad outcome for him if he was never able to reach his potential. But perhaps in that case his Wikipedia entry will read something like “The highlight of his shortened career was at the end, when he returned to pitching in the middle of the 2010 season to help the Seattle Mariners on their magical playoff run.” Maybe he’ll go out at the top, like Koufax.

Bedard's wasn't a full tear though was it?

Or am I thinking of someone else?

Meche had a partial tear didn't he?
Labrum Injuries aren't as bad as they once were

but yeah, still bad.

Yay for us!

I guess staying until 1 am to catch all the news of the day isn’t good enough anymore.

Another thought ... if Bedard cannot return as a starter, he would make a really nice lefty coming out of the pen.
This may not be any easier on his arm
This doesn't lower the likelihood us from still making a trade for a decent MOR guy, right?
I think no

but I also think that the likelihood of trading for an average starter (if that’s what you mean) is very low.

It makes Wang pretty much superfluous

If he’s going to miss the beginning month, at least.

That would not be a trade
Wang is never superfluous

You can never have too much

Someone may need to go check on royalcurve

Or is she hopping a flight to Peoria as well?

I think she's getting her passport renewed.
She just found out about a minute ago
And she's still OK?

It’s the first few hours that worry me. If she’s still alive at noon, it’s probably going to be fine.

I believe the sage wisdom of Suzi Quattro is applicable here
I am indeed fine. A little numb. A little unwilling to accept this is fact.

And willing to always listen to sage wisdom of Leather Tuscadero.

Was that "I Hate Myself for Loving You"?

No, wait, that was Joan Jett. I get all my ex-Runaways / Lady Rawkers confused.

Well,

this will help.

Hmmm

Written and directed by a women with just music video credits. Could be the next Spike Jonze, or just the next too-many-to-list.

Too bad they didn’t just cast the Pandoras to do this a few years ago. But they need the star power I guess. Weird to think Dakota Fanning is already old enough.

Look sb! Kristen Stewart!

Actually, I believe Suzi Quatro was in the Pleasure Seekers, not the Runaways. “What A Way to Die”…. great song.
The Runaways spawned Joan Jett and Lita Ford.

You are correct sir.
Funy thing is that Bedard pitches like a 3-5 guy since he can not go past 100 ptiches
What does that have to do with being a back of the rotation starter?

at all?

Even if this was spelled correctly

It would still not be true.

This is excellent

I like the idea of him getting healthy and strong and joining the team at a perfect time. With him being added in June, for instance, he bumps another, lesser pitcher out of the squad, opening them up to either be traded for something else more important or slotted to Tacoma in case somebody gets hurt. Hard to see where this kind of deal could go bad

After what the Ms gave up for him and the millions they have already paid him

I figure he owes the club a discount when he comes back. I realize that he was not responsible for Bavasi giving up the farm for him but he has cost the organization a lot and a little pay-back is called for. That said if he can give us a last half of this season equal to his first half of last season he should be square with the board. It does seem that some are a bit blind to the risk/reward fulcrum placement with Bedard at the moment though. There are valid reasons no other club signed him … and why the Z-Crew did.

This is just insane.

He doesn’t “owe” anyone anything other than his best effort. And no one here is blind to the risk/reward involved with Bedard; people are excited because the reward far outweighs the risk and because many of us like Bedard a lot.

He doesn't owe the club shit.

He worked for six years of indentured servitude for Major League Baseball. In those six years, he has been paid below his market value. Baseball owes Erik Bedard money.

Racism against mumbly French Canadians!
That makes no sense

He doesn’t owe anybody anything. He is an employee of a company, nothing more nothing less. As long as he does his job to his fullest potential while under contract, that’s all he needs to do.

If anybody owes us something with regards to Bedard

It’s Bavasi.

If anybody "owes" anything.

It’s the fans who keep crapping on him that owe him an apology.

Part of the reason Bedard is in his predicament was him trying to live up to lofty expectations by pitching through pain in 2008.

Again, it's not his fault Bavasi is completely incompetent.
.

Bedard Pitch

(although it won’t be Opening Day when he pitches again…)

So at some point this season we'll see Felix/Lee/Bedard/RRS/Snell?

At some point this season, Ian Snell will potentially be the worst starting pitcher on our roster. If this team doesn’t have the best rotation in franchise history I will vomit with rage and sadness.

So, 1.5 WAR?

Is that asking too much if he comes back July 1? He was 1.9 WAR last year in 15 injury-plagued starts, so if he’s healthy (but not 100%), would 1.5 be unrealistic?

I don't think we can really even begin to guess until we see what he looks like in his rehab assignment
No, 1.5 would not be at all unrealistic, assuming he's healthy.

Think of it this way: at his peak, let’s call Bedard 5 WAR. 5 WAR x .5 for playing time x .8 for 80% performance = 2 WAR.

That was also a shoulder surgery ago.
Erik Bedard is Ours

And You Can’t Have Him.

Or maybe you could?

Give us a few months and we will know for sure.

Bill Bavasi is the Special Assistant to the GM for the Cincinnati Reds.

Hello Joey Votto.

He's special alright!
The Reds may have been dumb enough to give him a job

But they seem smart enough to ignore him. Maybe they’re letting him find cheap bullpen arms, the one skill he seemed to have while here. (Though from what we’ve seen from many teams, that doesn’t seem that difficult: it just involves not giving away players or big contracts for relievers… right, Omar?)

So, Jim Street was right?

This really has been a crazy off-season. Also, YAY BEDARD!

The torn rotator cuff that has been plaguing me all winter

stopped hurting today.

Maybe it really was true love’s sympathy pains

Happy you are feeling better :)
What do you guys think about a rotation of Felix and 4 lefties?

Is that too many? Does it hurt us? Or perhaps help us because of Safeco?

Just asking because Dave tweeted that he’d be fine with Washburn for a couple mil. Got me thinking.

Sure would negate a lot of the advantage that lefty hitters have in Safeco.
With a complementary bullpen

That’s complementary in terms of handedness, not in terms of price.

So do we still get any compensation for Bedard being Type B free agent after this one- year contract?
We wouldn't have anyway

We never offered him arbitration

Even if we had, how can we be compensated with our own picks?

or would we just get an extra supplemental?

We would lose all compensation in that scenario I believe

Because we retained the player.

I believe he is asking about next year

as he states “after this one year contract”. In other words, could we offer him arb after the year and see a draft choice if he goes elsewhere assuming he pitches well enough to at least be a type B.

Oh

Well considering he is gonna miss half the season and missed a ton of time last year (and is coming back from labrum surgery) it’s probably going to be pretty tough for him even to be type B. But if he somehow does pitch well enough for it and he signs somewhere else after we offer him arb next year then yes we would get compensation.

I believe the Elias rankings pro-rate your numbers if you're hurt.

Bedard only pitched 81 innings in 2008 and 83 innings last year, and he was a Type B. So it could happen.

Oh yeah, you're right they do pro-rate them

So maybe

Are you asking about next offseason?
Only if he's a type B after this season and we offer him arbitration

But with the number of starts he’ll have over the two years, it’s unlikely that he’ll be a type B

Vive la rédemption!
This signing cured my cancer.

And made me irresistible to the ladies. Well… more irresistible.

So how much money does Z have to work with after this?

Does an incentives package have to be accounted for as if the best case scenario occurs? One where Bedard stays healthy and reaches all incentives? Or do they project his likely end salary from his base salary plus an estimate for the incentives he reaches. Say something like: $1,500,000 + .5 * $6,000,000 for $4,500,000 total.

I have nothing to ad to the discussion

But I have to howl at the moon at bit because this is so what I wanted. I wanted him to come back and have a chance to be a kick ass pitcher for us and he has that chance and it isn’t going to cost an arm and a leg.

I loved everything he said today in the interview I read. He gets that this is an exiting team with a great manager, club house and that Felix and Lee are an epic one, two pitching punch. He also thinks Roland-Smith is going to break out this year. And finally him saying he would come in here and be the fifth starter, and be thrilled about it, also makes me happy.

I’m freak’n Happy. This M’s team is truly getting special. And I have a feeling even more good is coming.

Honestly, Bedard is signed to play what 5 games?

One game in the ALDS.
One game in the ALCS.
One game in the WS. (And one late inning relief appearance that ESPN will talk about for the next five years.)

I meant 4 games.
No, it's 5

You forgot the one-game playoff against the Rangers to get into the ALDS, which is won when Griffey hits “The Double 2.0” and Ichiro ends up as the grinning face at the bottom of the dogpile.

Sounds about right
Erik Bedard’s incentive-laden deal could pay over $7.5 million, Sports Illustrated’s Jon Heyman reports.
The $7.5 million figure is what the 30-year-old made in 2009, a season cut short by injury. The left-hander is expected to sign a one-year deal worth a minimum of $1.5 million with the Mariners after undergoing a physical. Even if Bedard hits all incentives, Seattle will get plenty of value to make the signing worth the money.
Dave tweeted that there's a mutual 2011 option as well.
But mutual options are almost useless.
Physical passed, woooooooo!
Yusmeiro Petit DFA'd to make room for Bedard

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