All we have to do is pay
Richie Sexson the pro-rata value of the $390,000 MLB minimum ($162,500), and Seattle will continue paying him the balance of the $14 million this year. He's 33, plays 1st base, and was regularly booed by Mariners' fans while hitting over 30 HRs in 2 seasons. His 11 home runs, in limited 2008 ABs, exceeds ANYONE playing for Washington. His 30 RBIs exceed all Nationals except Flores. We would get a better fielding 1st baseman, and could TRADE
Dmitri Young before the July 31 deadline, to be an AL DH. Sexson is 6' 8" and weighs 240. Seattle should have tried harder to trade Sexson. He is the prototype of the low BA slugger that Bowden tried to put in the Nationals OF in 2008.
NAME GP AB R H 2B 3B HR TB RBI BB SO SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS
Richie Sexson 74 252 27 55 8 0 11 96 30 37 76 1 0 .218 .315 .381 .696
Mariners Release Sexson, Put Bedard on DLJul 10, 2008; 6:01 PM
By GREGG BELL
SEATTLE (AP) -Slugger Richie Sexson (1B) was finally released Thursday by the Mariners after a slump that lasted for most of two seasons and made him a target of constant booing from frustrated Seattle fans. The Mariners would have loved to have been able to trade Sexson, but his $14 million salary this season made that nearly impossible. So now Seattle is eating the rest of that money - $6,120,219 Sexson is owed from Friday through the end of the season - in what may be the first of multiple moves to rid the last-place team of underperforming veteran players. That amount would be reduced by a prorated share of the $390,000 minimum salary if Sexson signs with another team.
The Mariners, with a payroll of $117 million, expected to reach their first postseason since 2001. Instead they entered Thursday's game at Oakland at 36-55, 18 games out in the AL West. Seattle has already fired general manager Bill Bavasi plus manager John McLaren and remains on track to become the first team with a $100 million payroll to lose 100 games...
Sexson, a 33-year-old native of Brush Prairie, Wash., was batting .218 with just 30 RBIs in 74 games and has often been benched in favor of light-hitting and seldom-used Miguel Cairo. McLaren, on his way out last month, said Sexson was trying too hard and that a change of teams probably would be best for his sagging career.
Even during his 39- and 34-home run seasons for the Mariners in 2005 and '06, Sexson wasn't embraced by Seattle fans since arriving from Arizona with a four-year, $50 million contract on Dec. 15, 2004. Two days later, Adrian Beltre signed to overshadow Sexson.
Then came last season. He hit a career-worst .205 with 21 homers and 100 strikeouts in '07, which ended with the Mariners mercifully shutting him down for the final weeks of September with a relatively minor leg injury. He had the lowest on-base percentage (.295) of his career. His batting average was the lowest in the major leagues among those with at least 312 at bats. That would be fine with Seattle - he has always been a slugger, not a hitter for average - except Sexson's run production was also a career low for a full season not cut short by major injury.
This season brought more of the same. As of late last month, he had the lowest batting average of all regulars in the AL since the beginning of the '07 season.
