Prospect Insider - M's eye Smith, two sign

M's eye Smith, two sign

By Alex Carson

By 11-30-2011

If there's one thing that we can look forward to in 2012, something that will help bury the anguish that was 2011, it's that Adam Kennedy won't be back with the Seattle Mariners. That's because the Los Angeles Dodgers have reportedly signed Kennedy. On purpose.

Kennedy, going into his age 36 season, is swiftly becoming one of those grizzled veterans that won't go away. He's the kind of guy who isn't very good anymore, but his experience somehow gets him on major league rosters year after year.

The last time Kennedy's production was significantly better than a random replacement level minor leaguer was 2008. The last time he was a guy you'd really want on your team was 2005. Yet, here he is, still toiling around the majors, siphoning money from a team's budget.

Clearly, Kennedy is going to the Dodgers with different expectations that he had when he signed with Seattle. He's not starting the season at a set position, holding down the fort for a highly touted prospect. Instead, he knows he'll be bouncing around the infield as a reserve. So long as the money is right, and Kennedy doesn't find himself playing every day due to injury, this may not be so bad for the Dodgers.

Plus, very rarely will Donny Baseball be subject to the same temptations as Eric Wedge, sticking Kennedy in the middle of his lineup as a DH.

Jon Morosi tweets that the Mariners have interest in Colorado Rockies outfielder Seth Smith.

The team is hoping Franklin Gutierrez is healthy and Ichiro stops cliff diving. Even if both of those things go right, they're currently sitting on guys like Casper Wells, Michael Saunders and Trayvon Robinson to fill the third spot. Those five players probably don't make Zduriencik and Wedge feel comfortable with their outfield.

As a left-handed hitter with good discipline at the plate, he fits the ballpark and the type of player Zduriencik has targeted. He even has some power. His glaring weakness is, well, glaring: he stinks against left-handed pitching.

Smith's walks-to-strikeouts ratio last season dropped from 0.53 against righties to 0.37 against lefties. His OBP slipped from .366 to .272, wOBA from .378 to .256. He would be a pretty good platoon partner for Casper Wells, but shouldn't see much time against southpaws.

Smith has often been linked as available this off-season, so it isn't surprising to find out Mariners brass has kicked some tires. Tuck this away and we'll see what happens next week.

When Theo Epstein was running the Red Sox, he reportedly wanted to acquire David DeJesus at one juncture. A job change for the former, a hand injury and a few years later for the former and Theo has his guy. The Cubs inked DeJesus for two years with a price tag of $10 million, plus a third year option.

Whether or not the Cubs are able to move Alfonso Soriano, this deal helps. Their outfield depth isn't great. Even if you believe former Mariners farm hand Bryan LaHair has "found it," outfield blades of grass shouldn't be meeting the bottom of his cleats.

DeJesus is a decent player. His decent approach at the plate and decent defense provide a decent value for the Cubbies at an area of need.

The Mariners have no need for a player like DeJesus, who doesn't provide power and isn't plus centerfielder. Otherwise, he might have been.

Alex Carson can be reached via email at carson@prospectinsider.com. You can follow him on Twitter here.

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