Mariners' Ownership Will Keep Payroll Steady for 2011 Season

SEATTLE -- Wednesday will go down in Seattle baseball history as the day the team lost Hall of Fame announcer Dave Niehaus to a heart attack.

"Mariner baseball will never be the same," Jay Buhner said Thursday when a group of former Mariners living in the area and some of the Seattle front office gathered to reminisce about one of the best guys any of them have ever known.

Earlier in the day Wednesday, however, it was all baseball at Safeco Field. It was the annual owners' meeting, and the owners set the budget for the 2011 season.

According to a source who was in the room, the Mariners, whose problems in the 2010 season started when they trimmed about $10 million from the 2009 budget, won't be going down that road again.

"The player payroll for the 2011 season will not go down," the source told FanHouse Thursday.

That means the Mariners will hand general manager Jack Zduriencik about $91 million to spend on the payroll next year to improve the team with the worst record in the American League. And the money total could get a bit higher.

"It's actually pretty complicated," the source said. "A lot depends on the Bradley situation and what happens there."

HONORING DAVE NIEHAUS

The Mariners will open Safeco Field from noon to 3 p.m. PT Saturday for an open house where fans can gather and share memories of Niehaus, who was the lead voice for the club from its inception in 1977.

There's no set program for the day. The club, in consultation with the Niehaus family, is planning on a more formal celebration in the coming weeks.
That would be Milton Bradley, the Mariner left fielder, to whom the club owes $12 million for the 2011 season. That money, plus the $5.5 million the team owes to the Cubs as part of the deal that sent pitcher Carlos Silva to Chicago in the Bradley trade, is the issue.

The Mariners may well be trying to move Bradley despite protestations from both the Bradley camp and from new manager Eric Wedge that the head-butting between the two in Cleveland that led to the Indians trading the outfielder is ancient history that won't figure into the 2011 season.

If they are successful, they'd probably have to pay most of Bradley's salary, but the differential would be added to what the Mariners would have available to spend.

As it is, only about $34 million of the $91 million is uncommitted with right fielder Ichiro Suzuki ($17 million), Bradley ($12 million), starting pitcher Felix Hernandez ($10 million), second baseman Chone Figgins ($9 million), shortstop Jack Wilson ($5 million) and center fielder Franklin Gutierrez ($4 million) locked into contracts.