Third Time's a Charm- Mariners resign Erik Bedard

The Mariners announced today that they have resigned 31 year old LHP Erik Bedard to a one year, non-guaranteed contract. This will be his third contract with the Mariners and hopefully the third time is the charm. His last two seasons prior to 2010 came to an end early with season-ending shoulder surgery.

Bedard came over in a deal with the Orioles in 2008 for 5 players including Adam Jones, George Sherrill, Chris Tillman, Tony Butler, and Kam Mickolio.  This turned out to be a terrible trade as the Mariners gave up one of today’s best young outfielders for a supposed ace that has yet to perform up to expectations for Seattle. But that’s in the past and there is nothing we can do so it is best to just forget and move on.

Bedard received about $7 million dollars each of his first two seasons with the M’s. He was not able to break 85 IP in either one of those years and recorded a total of 11 wins. He did perform pretty well in this short amount of time but the Mariners expected him to be a healthy contributor.

He then became a free agent for the 2010 season and the Mariners resigned him for a one year deal worth $1.5 million with a mutual option for 2011. Bedard did not play in a single game last year and the Mariners recently declined his $8 million option.

That leads us to now. The resigning of Bedard today is a very low risk option and could turn out with great reward. He has proved when healthy that he can put up great numbers. He has a career ERA of 3.71 as well as 801 strikeouts in 822 IP.

I really like this deal for the Mariners and I think Bedard will be out to prove himself this year. He wants to redeem himself and I think he will work hard to do so. Not to mention if he puts up great numbers this year he could be in for a nice pay check next year which motivates any player.

This is a great deal for the Mariners because they have nothing to lose. Bedard should settle in nicely into the middle of Seattle’s rotation.