A lot has been made of how Zduriencik shouldn't just give Washburn away. This is silly. While he should endeavour to mazimise value, it's not like Washburn is actually worth anything to the franchise right now. List of potential reasons to keep him:
- Wins in 2009
- Draft pick next June
- Possible extension
Despite Beltre's expected return on Tuesday wins in 2009 don't really matter anymore. We are, for all intents and purposes, out of the playoff race, and therefore winning an extra game or two isn't going to help us out at all. Besides, Washburn's fairly easily replaceable. What's the actual difference between him and Ryan Rowland-Smith except for salary and the cute accent thing? It's not a whole lot, especially over two months.
We have to offer arbitration in October to get a compensatory draft pick. Offering him arbitration would be insane, because you'll end up being on the hook for $12-14 million dollars for a year of Jarrod Washburn. He'd totally clean up the arbitration hearings and his agent knows it. The risk is simply not worth trying to get an early 40s pick next June. Washburn's never going to be a type A so it's not like we're going to get anything particularly shiny with him anyway.
Re-signing him? Are you kidding?
By all means, induce a bidding war so you can get a good return back. But Washburn no longer holds any value to the Seattle Mariners, which would make holding onto him a rather pointless little exercise.