KING FELIX STAYS IN SEATTLE

Congratulations to King Felix Hernandez and the Seattle Mariners on agreeing to a deal today. Essentially , its a 5 year/$135.5 million extension, making his contract 7 years/$175 million which would keep him in Seattle through his age 33 season. Pretty Awesome and they get to keep him on a discount from what I thought would happen. I really thought King Felix could easily get a 7 year extension at $198 million making it a 9 year/$237 million deal. Great deal by the Mariners to keep him for cheaper and to take less risk with 2 less years. At the end of the contract he will still only be 33 so we'll see what happens. Its a great deal for both. Even though Felix took less, he gets to stay in Seattle, where he wants to be, and gives himself security 2 years away from free agency. It also opens him up for one more decent sized contract at the end of this one if he stays healthy and productive throughout (which I personally have no doubt he will do). The Mariners pitching rotation moving forward looks to be really promising. It would be really broken if they would have kept Pineda (though he did end up getting hurt). Can you imagine King Felix, Pineda, Walker, Hultzen, Paxton, Ramirez, Maurer, Iwakuma+? Their bullpen is also pretty nasty with guys that throw in the high 90s like Pryor, Capps, Wilhelmsen (who could also start). They could also put Noesi in the pen where I personally think he would be better. Furbush is a good lefty option and even Oliver Perez has been really good for them out of the pen. They actually just designated Shawn Kelley for assignment to make room on the 40 man roster. That was pretty surprising considering how good he has looked and the fact that there were 3 other options I thought would easily go before him. He likely wont fall all the way to the Marlins in a waiver claim, but I would like to see the Marlins trade for him b/c he would be a really nice piece for the pen.

The Mariners have a lot of good, young talent coming up and now have a true ace to build around for years to come. They have made some interesting moves this off-season and that might lead to more free agents being willing to come there. Even though they lost long term on a couple of deals, they could surprise people this season. They played really the last couple of months of the season. Whatever happens, King Felix is staying on his throne in Seattle, where he belongs