FanHouse JeremyReed

As you might have heard, defense is the new big thing. It's not a revolutionary idea to suggest that having good defense can help you win baseball games, but the improvement the Rays made from 2007 to 2008 was quite a wake-up call around the majors. They had essentially the same pitchers, and they actually scored fewer runs, but they won 31 more games with good defense.

Which brings us to the Seattle Mariners.

The Mariners were a train-wreck of a team last year, despite what we all thought was supposed to be pretty good pitching. Now, the Mariners are riding high in the AL West, with the best ERA in the league. Most of their pitchers are the same (granted, Erik Bedard has been healthy).

The difference could be Endy Chavez and Franklin Gutierrez.

Our MLB editor files dispatches from the Winter Meetings in Las Vegas in Notes From Sin City.

I've seen quite a bit of Mets general manager Omar Minaya here at the Bellagio, so I'd like to think he's reading my posts. Even if he isn't, he did respond to my suggestion that New York needs more bullpen help, by pulling off a three-way deal for closer J.J. Putz.

Minaya, along with Indians GM Mark Shapiro and Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik, made the trade official moments ago and he had a simple message for the folks in New York who keep bothering him when he goes out to get his morning bagels.

"To you Mets fans, we've addressed the bullpen by getting Mr. Putz," he said.

Indeed he has, and he's addressed a few other areas of need with this deal, further adding to the bullpen depth by acquiring Sean Green, a guy who is very tough on right-handed hitters, and filling the hole left by Endy Chavez with Jeremy Reed, who is a capable fourth outfielder.

But this deal is mostly about Putz, who, if healthy, could be an even more devastating weapon than the recently signed Francisco Rodriguez.

"To win championships, you have to have a good bullpen," said Minaya. "We had Putz and K-Rod as one and two on our list [coming into the offseason]. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine we'd have our No. 1 and No. 2 closer."

Update: This trade is now official.

So you thought the Mets were out of the running for a J.J. Putz trade after signing Francisco Rodriguez. I can't say I blame you ... I thought the same thing. But apparently there are discussions of a three-team, twelve player deal were first reported by Ken Rosenthal and updated by Castro Turf:

Under terms of the deal, the Mets would get Putz, outfielder Jeremy Reed and reliever Sean Green from Seattle. The Mariners would receive reliever Aaron Heilman, outfielder Endy Chavez and first baseman Mike Carp from the Mets. They'd also get Franklin Gutierrez from the Indians and minor leaguers. The Indians would get reliever Joe Smith from the Mets and infielder Luis Valbuena from Seattle.

Double whoa on this one. It's a lot to give up for the Mets to get a guy that struggled through injury last season (and by a lot I mean Smith ... since Chavez has been invisible for the Mets lately and Aaron Heilman is ... well, Aaron Heilman), but if Putz returns to his injury free form of '07, and if he becomes cool with pitching the eighth instead of the ninth (Rosenthal's recent update is that Putz's current answer to that question was "no"), this is a huge get for them to further improve the bullpen after the acquisition of K-Rod.

Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2009.

The Mariners went into 2008 as playoff contenders in the eyes of some, and a sub-.500 team that wasn't going to be able to score enough runs to compete in the minds of others. The latter camp was closer in its expectation, but nobody could have foreseen just how far Seattle would fall.

The offense was bad, as expected, finishing 13th in the AL in runs, OBP, and SLG. The more surprising issue was that the pitching, a unit which looked to be solid at the outset of the year, fell apart as well. Offseason acquisition Erik Bedard and previously dominant closer J.J. Putz both battled injuries, and weren't particularly impressive when they did pitch. They also got some abysmal performances from the back end of the rotation, with Carlos Silva, Ryan Feierabend and Miguel Batista combining for a 6.55 ERA in 308 innings.

It's worth noting that all the blame for the run prevention issues shouldn't fall solely to the pitchers, as the Mariners were 13th in the AL in defensive efficiency.

While Monday was already a great day of change in Seattle with the deserved firing of general manager Bill Bavasi, it wasn't the only thing that changed with the Mariners yesterday. For the first time since August 19th, 2006, Ichiro Suzuki started a game in right field.

Right field was where Ichiro spent his first five years in Seattle, and after the team sent Wladimir Balentien back down to Tacoma in favor of Jeff Clement, there was an opening in right and John McLaren says he'd been thinking about making the move for a month or so. Still, this may not be the last move that Ichiro makes this season, as McLaren also said he's toying with the idea of dropping him out of the lead-off spot in the Mariners lineup.

McLaren said he's also spoken to Ichiro about a move out of the leadoff spot in hopes of jump-starting an offense that ranks last in the American League in runs scored and second-to-last in team batting average.

Such a move does not appear imminent, however, because McLaren said there is currently no other obvious candidate to hit leadoff.

"Ichiro is on board with anything we want to do to help the club, and I think most of these guys are from the same school in that clubhouse," McLaren said.

The Mariners will be finishing up a six-game road trip this afternoon at Yankee Stadium, and they'll be hoping to avoid going 0-6. Still, you have to wonder, despite the fact that they haven't won a game on this trip, do they really even want to go back home to Seattle? At least while they're in New York, the home fans can't kill them, so they're safer on the road.

There's probably also some fear in manager John McLaren and general manager Bill Bavasi that they may not hold those titles for much longer. The fans wouldn't exactly cry themselves to sleep at night knowing those two were gone, and they may be getting their wish soon as both have received the dreaded votes of confidence from team president Chuck Armstrong.

"Their positions are secure," Armstrong told MLB.com from his Bellevue, Wash., home. "They are not to be blamed for what's going on.

"In my 23 years, I have never ever seen anything like this. We saw it the other way in 2001. I mean, you have to ask yourself, 'How did the Mariners win 116 games that season with that roster, compared to this roster?' This is just as inexplicable the other way."