Bill Bavasi Quotes (34 Quotes)

I'm confident common sense will prevail.

And we had no surplus, no one in development, to come along if we had created holes. Serious trade possibilities for pitching did not avail themselves, and we did not shop those guys.

The language barrier, as we're finding out, was way overblown. I think he was the only one who was freaked about it. But by and large, there won't be any communication problems.

Matt is a solid left-handed hitter and base stealer who will provide us with depth and flexibility. He can help us in a variety of roles, including the ability to play all three outfield positions.

It was not an optimum year for it. The free-agent pool was not deep where we needed it. But it was good at the very top and we do feel we siphoned off some of that when we signed Jarrod.

He helps us in a variety of roles, including the ability to steal a base and play almost any position on the field.

If he has interest in playing for us next season, we will have interest in him.

When somebody first brings the name up, there are a lot of reservations. As with every player you look into everything very closely, and we're satisfied its a one-time deal.

Kevin and Fernando are both veteran major league players that we can bring to camp for some extra depth on our team. They have both had health challenges but, if healthy, they will be valuable players for our younger guys to compete against and learn from.

When we met with him in Seattle, he made a point of using English as much as he could. That leads me to believe he will be fine. He is going to have to pick up English, and Spanish to a limited degree, and we have to have some patience with him.

We're out there looking. There is nothing serious in the works at this time.

I sense things are close one way or the other. We'll know if we're in or out in a relatively short time.

That's the ups and downs of a closer, especially one who works with command more than power.

At the start of this off-season, our goals were to acquire a high-quality starting pitcher, add offense, re-sign Jamie Moyer and, ideally, upgrade our catching. Today's announcement marks the final, and perhaps most important, in that off-season list of goals.

This was a pretty high priority for us in the off-season. The signing for us is terrific because there's so few real quality left or switch-hitters that can operate in the middle of the lineup and be as consistent as Raul. We wanted to lock him up.

Nothing is official yet. We feel good that common sense will prevail.

We're real excited about this. This is a big change in a real important position on our club. We're going from a position of weakness behind the plate to one of strength.

We couldn't give up what offense we had, and Richie was a big part of what we had as it was. And we feel Adrian will hit.

We felt good about his season and we feel good about him as a person. The one voice you hear in there now is his. It would be nice if we could clone his approach and give it to other guys. So that was important to us.

So far, he's every bit the player we thought we were getting.

In order to make deals you have to create some excess. Some guys have options, some don't.

We can be working on a trade beyond opening day. It's not something we need to have done by that date.

It probably does signal the idea that a young player on this club doesn't have a birthright to a spot on the club.

We could have gone with a safer choice, but we felt that Jesse had the highest ceiling. Our philosophy in making trades last year was to take the gamble and go for the players we felt had the most upside.

Right now, this doesn't threaten anybody. This doesn't threaten Lawton at all he's an important guy on our club.

I don't think there's extra pressure. I know that it's natural for people who haven't been in this game and who haven't worked in this game to think about it and ask the question.

There are so few real good left-handed or switch-hitters that can operate in the middle of a lineup and be as consistent as Raul. We're thrilled.

This provides us with a great opportunity to play in front of our fans in the Northwest before we begin the regular season.

Would you blame him if he had interest in Felix Hernandez I'm a guy who worked my tail off to get Carlos Delgado.

We were impressed that a young kid could make the jump from high-A to competing at the big-league level in Colorado. This was an opportunity for us to continue to build our inventory of young, major league-level pitching prospects.

There is a lot of interest in Reed from other clubs, including us.

Although he may not be terribly comfortable speaking English yet, he is understanding it well. He's a baseball rat.

We wish to extend our deepest sympathy to the Mateo family. The thoughts and prayers of the entire Seattle organization are with Julio and his family as they deal with this tragic accident.

There's always a risk in a multiyear, high-dollar contract.