Mariners Blog
Geoff Baker covers the Mariners for The Seattle Times. He provides daily coverage of the team throughout spring training, and during the season.
SubscribeNovember 4, 2008 6:44 PM
Ibanez: "Too early to tell"
Posted by Geoff Baker
Spoke to Raul Ibanez tonight, listening over the phone to the sounds of his newborn daughter, Carolina, wailing in the background. She was born on Oct. 5 in Bellevue, but is now back home in Miami with Mom, Pop and her three siblings. Anyhow, we got around to chatting about his phone conversation with new Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik.
Ibanez described it as "a nice conversation" but said "it's too early to tell" what will happen with his pending free agency.
Several teams have contacted his agents, he said. But Ibanez added that he's told the agents to put off on giving him the details for now. It's still very early in the process. The Mariners have until 16 days after the end of the World Series -- mid-November -- to negotiate exclusively with Ibanez. They have until Dec. 1 to offer him arbitration.
"Quite frankly, when I spoke to Jack it was a quick conversation,'' Ibanez said. "He said once he knew more of what they were planning ondoing, we'd talk again. I didn't get a sense yet of what they're trying to do.''
Ibanez wants a sense of how serious a rebuilding effort this is going to be.
"He's looking for a manager and he's got a lot on his plate right now,'' Ibanez said.
"He just said that he wanted me to know he'd heard good things about me as a person and a player. He wanted me to know that he'd extended me the courtesy and respect as a player, by talking to me a bit.
"I didn't want to pry further than that. He's the boss. I told him I thought it can be done in Seattle. He told me he thought that, too. He thought it could get turned around. He just didn't give any specifics or say how long it was going to take. But he did say he'd get back to me when he had a little better idea of how things were going to go.''
Digg
Newsvine
UPDATE - 8:32 AM
Recently listed
Popular searches
- SPU surprises neighbors with sale of Queen Anne rec property
- Beer-drinking bridge builders will get training from a counselor
- Boy's pat on president's head captured for history
- Police arrest New Jersey man who confessed to killing Etan Patz
- Man arrested in disappearance of NYC boy Etan Patz
- Amazon addresses criticism at meeting
- Matt Flynn has good day in Seahawks' 3-way QB competition
- Comedy gets zapped in 'Men in Black 3' | Movie review
- Why dealing for Kellen Winslow makes sense for Seahawks | Steve Kelley
- Chone Figgins likely to survive Miguel Olivo's return | The Hot Stone League
- NAACP returns to relevance by backing same-sex marriage
355 - Mariners try to extend some other team's misery for a change 337
- Quit drinking beer on job, Highway 520 builders told 319
- SPU surprises neighbors with sale of Queen Anne rec property 252
- Traffic study gives arena a green light; critics see red 222
- Protesters rally outside Amazon annual meeting 170
- Romney slams Obama, teachers unions 142
- Opponents of gay-marriage law say they have enough signatures 123
- Mariners avoid making Chone Figgins call, but can't keep doing nothing with him 122
- Sources: DOJ sends letters to city blasting police reform efforts 99
- Dig into colorful history at Oregon's John Day Fossil Beds
- Get a sitter — please — for these 10 great date-night restaurants | All You Can Eat
- SPU surprises neighbors with sale of Queen Anne rec property
- Beer-drinking bridge builders will get training from a counselor
- Gates Foundation grants give local groups a boost
- Zumiez rebounds from recession better than most
- Boy's pat on president's head captured for history
- Recipe: Brown Butter Asparagus Risotto
- 2 ex-Hopelink workers accused in $100,000 bus-pass theft
- Driver fatally shot in Central Area
May
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
| 1 | 2 | |||||
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
| 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| 31 |