Jack Z continues to give M's a major face lift!

As we all found out at sometime yesterday the Mariners' roster is continuing to be altered. With the addition on Chone Figgins this adds a element that has not been seen since the 80's with the St. Louis Cardinals.

But is this the end? Is the Mariners' GM going to be able to continue his good fortunes with bringing together talent to establish a winner.

Lackey, Bay, or Harden?

If one of these players is next will that give enough wiggle room to be able to lock up King Felix for the rest of his professional days?

If you look at the money that is coming off the books this season as been stated on many levels is around $50 million dollars. Take away around $9 million for Figgins, that roughly leaves $40 million left.

Sign a part-time/backup catcher like Mark Redmond for $1.5-$2 million dollars Now that leaves you at $38 million.

Who knows how much any of the big three will actually cost in the market, only true insiders know this, but lets just say we could sign Jason Bay to a 5-year, $80 million dollar deal. With this deal now takes the the total down to $22 million available.

As for Lackey, lets just say that John Lackey maybe able to be had on a 4-year, $50 million dollar deal. Equaling if all base salaries are the same works out to $12 million a year. Leaving us $10 million still to work with off of the original $50 million.

Would a 10 year, $100 million dollar contract be enough to lock up Felix? Probably not, but since Felix is at least six years younger then the other Free Agents signed. All of the previous contract will have expired or the others have retired.

So lets say we come up with a 10-year, $180 million back loaded into the last 4-5 years of the contract. So obviously I am not a contract expert otherwise I would not be writing this. But For the first few years it will slowly escalate to a higher amount on the other end of the contract.

With these four contracts the Mariners will be a playoff contender, for the life of Felix's contract.

And finally, Adrian Beltre can throw a wrench to this plan by accepting arbitration. Leading to players and their positions being up in the air.

I look forward to writing about the future signings that are coming to town!