During the initial chaos of the Chone Figgins situation early yesterday (it is quite late as I’m writing this), I got caught up in Twitter and a bunch of other sites buzzing with the news. Were we really going to sign him? Was it just another rumor? Where did this even come from? I decided that in order to bring myself back down to earth, I’d go meet a friend for lunch at Thanh Bros and step away from the computer for a while. A little pho on a cold day never hurt anyone, and getting away from the rumor mill, even if only for an hour or two, would do me some good. I got into the car with the radio blaring ESPN just in time to hear their station ID guy talk about the deal, along with a recording of Dave Niehaus calling Figgins throwing out a Mariner at first. The Mariner? Adrian Beltre. As I drove to Capitol Hill, Brock & Salk did their best to analyze the move, still wondering if it was really true, or if this was all still talk.
After lunch, I got back into the car to reports of Shannon Drayer Tweeting that the deal was all but done, but wouldn’t be announced until tomorrow. Larry LaRue said it couldn’t even be finalized or announced until Monday. I’m still on a cloud over this move. It’s such a shock to sign a free agent who is not only as good as Figgins has reasonably proven to be, but who also comes from your team’s greatest rival (sorry, I’m not buying the whole Mariners vs. Padres thing; I just can’t take it seriously). To make things even more crazy, it’s a multi-year deal, and doesn’t interfere with taking care of business where Felix Hernandez is concerned. AND we still have money leftover. Not too shabby; but I still have a doubt that I can’t shake…
I wandered over to the Angels mlb.com message board yesterday afternoon to see if there were any reactions there. It seems to be mostly people downplaying the deal, but they did bring up a pretty valid point, and the only thing I don’t care for on the surface with this situation – Figgins’ age vs the amount of time and money he was offered to be in Seattle. I can’t tell if it’s just sour grapes on the part of Anaheim fans, for whom Figgins has been a constant his entire career, or if there really is a reason we should all be concerned, and Figgins is just going to tank. USS Mariner doesn’t seem too annoyed by it though, and they’re the science guys, so I guess I can accept this, even if it seems a little daunting at first glance. I don’t expect Figgins to fail, by any means – but it seems like so. much. money.
Getting home here at midnight and looking over MLBTR, it does appear that the Angels have conceded, so barring any emergencies over the next 24-48 hours, I’m going to continue to be happy about it. There is no further news, denial, or verification of anything involving the Mariners at this hour, so I’ll continue to let it sink in and see what happens tomorrow.
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Its probably 95% done deal….unless Chone pulls an Orlando Hudson from a couple years ago (he had a deal in place with arizona or atlanta…was schedule to do the manditory physical appointment….2 days later he’s signing with the dodgers for a similar contract)
The more I think about this one…the more I like it….as long as its 4 years (and doesnt have the 5th year vesting option)
Thank Kenji for the Chone signing…..his contract he opted out of, is about the same dollar amount as Figgins.
Out of town for a few days and wow!!! Hope that Z pulls this off, would be nice to get Figgins.
Interesting point about Kenji, I hadn’t thought of that. He was a class act, and hope he does well back in Japan.
Well, Kenji also came out on top of that whole situatiuon – he not only gets twice what we were going to pay him, but he also gets to play close to home – it’s really a win/win for everyone – and even moreso now!