SEATTLE (AP) -Raul Ibanez was offered salary arbitration Monday by the Mariners, a move that means Seattle would receive an extra pair of draft picks next year if the free-agent outfielder signs with another team.
New general manager Jack Zduriencik also said Monday he has had preliminary talks with the agent for Ken Griffey Jr., a free agent who became a superstar with the Mariners a decade ago.
Ibanez, the team’s leading run producer in 2008, has until Sunday to accept the arbitration offer. Under a change in baseball’s rules that began in 2006, free agents can re-sign with their former clubs at any time.
Ibanez has spent all but three of his 13 major league seasons with Seattle.
“We’d like to have him back to be a player with us for the coming year,” Zduriencik said.
That’s a different subject. What we’re telling him is that we’d love to have him back for this year.”
Ibanez was fifth in the AL with 110 RBIs while playing in all 162 games this year. He said at the end of the season he liked Seattle and loved its fans but wanted to win and was likely to explore multiyear offers from other teams.
Seattle lost 101 games this year and so far has remodeled the front office, its scouting staff and its entire coaching staff in the month-plus Zduriencik has been on the job.
“I’d like the opportunity to be competitive and have the opportunity to win,” Ibanez said after the final game of the season.
Seattle did not offer arbitration to its other former players who became free agents: utilitymen Willie Bloomquist and Miguel Cairo.
Zduriencik said the Mariners’ interest in Griffey, who turned 39 last month, remains preliminary.
“I have had discussions with Ken Griffey’s agent, yes. Have we talked about some possibilities with him? We have,” Zduriencik said. “Is there anything concrete? Is there an offer made? No.
“I’d say it’s more an inquiry more than anything else.”
The Mariners drafted Griffey No. 1 overall in 1987 and put him in their opening-day lineup while he was still a teenager.
Zduriencik stopped short of saying Seattle has an “interest” in signing him.
eek to 10 days,” he said.
The White Sox declined Griffey’s $16.5 million contract option for 2009 at the end of October. Griffey is getting a $4 million buyout to complete a $116.5 million, nine-year deal he agreed to with his hometown Cincinnati Reds before the 2000 season – after he demanded a trade from Seattle.
Griffey was an All-Star 10 times with Seattle. He’s been an All-Star just three times since, the last time in 2007.
He hit a combined .249 with 18 homers and 71 RBIs in 143 games last season for the Reds and White Sox. He agreed to a midseason trade to Chicago for a chance to play in the postseason and went 2-for-10 as the White Sox lost in four games to Tampa Bay in the first round of the AL playoffs.
Griffey had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee in October to repair torn meniscus and torn cartilage, a condition that affected his power numbers.
“He will undoubtedly help some club, both on the field and in the clubhouse,” White Sox general manager Ken Williams said when Griffey became a free agent. “Pure class.”
Griffey passed Sammy Sosa for fifth on the career home run list last season and has 611, trailing only Barry Bonds (762), Hank Aaron (755), Babe Ruth (714) and Willie Mays (660). Griffey is 18th with 1,772 RBIs.
He might not fit Seattle’s massive rebuilding project. The Mariners last season became the first team with a $100 million payroll to lose 100 games.
When he came back with the Reds for an interleague series in Seattle in June 2007, Griffey said he wanted to retire as a Mariner. He didn’t specify whether he’d like to return to Seattle as an active player or simply for a ceremonial contract before retiring.
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