Seattle Mariners Lock Up Felix Hernandez

The Seattle Mariners invested not only for 2010, but in their future last night.

According to ESPN.com’s Keith Law, the Mariners have signed ace Felix Hernandez to a five-year, $78 million contract extension. The deal buys out Hernandez’s two remaining years of arbitration.

First, kudos to the Mariners’ front office for locking up Hernandez. It always pleases me to see when teams lock up home-grown talent to long-term deals.

The Cleveland Indians started this trend in the early to mid-'90s, and it’s great to see the trend continuing into the 2000s. We have seen over the years teams like the Kansas City Royals (Zack Greinke), and most recently the Florida Marlins (Josh Johnson) lock up young talent.

Second, kudos for Hernandez for taking a hometown discount. I know it’s hard to say to a guy he just accepted a hometown discount at $78 million, but the reality of the situation is, he did.

For a guy of Hernandez’s age (23) and caliber, $78 million is a pretty good deal for the Mariners. Just look at all the pitchers who signed contracts similar to Hernandez’s over the last couple of years.

• Derek Lowe—Four years, $60 million
• Roy Oswalt—Five years, $73 million
• AJ Burnett—Five years, $82.5 million
• John Lackey—Five years, $82.5 million
• Carlos Zambrano—Five years, $91.5

Now, all of these pitchers are pretty good. There is no arguing that. But none of them at the age of 23 has accomplished what Hernandez has accomplished so far at the major league level or has the skill level of Hernandez.

Last year, Hernandez was 19-5 with a 2.49 ERA and struck out 217 in 238.2 innings of work. He also finished second in the AL Cy Young award voting to Greinke.

One could make the argument that Hernandez could have asked for a CC Sabathia (seven years, $161 million) or Johan Santana (six years, $137.5 million) like contract. But he didn’t and now the Mariners have Hernandez locked up to a reasonable contract for the next five years.

Now that they have Hernandez locked up, I wonder how this affects the re-signing of Cliff Lee? Lee is a free agent after this season and will be looking for a significant raise from his $5.75 million salary in 2010.

If the Mariners can lock up both Hernandez and Lee, then they will really have something going in Seattle.

 

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