Larry Stone / Baseball reporter
Sign of times in M's clubhouse: "For sale"

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Freddy's gone, and now every Mariners player has to be wondering the same thing, deep in the dugout of their mind: Who's next? And when? To where? For whom?

It's the unspoken distraction, the uneasy tug on every heartstring. Beyond Ichiro, a conceivable trade scenario can be made for virtually everyone else. And now that Garcia has been dealt, the official sign of surrender by the front office, it's clearly just a matter of time before the breakup of the Mariners as we knew them continues.

"When things go like they've gone, everyone is for sale," said Bret Boone. "That's just life. That's just the game."

What lies ahead is one of the many pitfalls of the noncontending — the spate of trade rumors, the closeted knowledge that you could be the next one beckoned into the manager's office. That's the game, too, at least for the downtrodden.

"If your name has been brought up in rumors, and now all of a sudden we've made this one trade with Freddy, the question lingers: How long is it for me?" said reliever Mike Myers, whose name, like Boone's, already has hit the always-fertile Yankees speculation vortex. "But you could be here all year and possibly next year. You never know. Rumors are exactly what they are until the GM calls you in his office."

Virtually every player polled yesterday had the same solution for dealing with the uncertainty: Try to put it out of their mind when they hit the field, and play as hard as they can. Which, of course, is easier said than done.

"We do have a core of veteran guys that have been through all that before," said manager Bob Melvin. "Even Freddy, when I talked to him yesterday before we knew all this was going down, told me, 'You know what? I'm just going to pitch. What happens is going to happen.'

"That's the attitude everyone should take here. You're paid to do a job, and we have a tremendous fan base we play in front of that comes out to support us every night. We owe them at least that. I don't think that's going to be an issue."

One of the other attributes of being a veteran is that they know how the game works, the dark underbelly. Fans around here might be a little hazy, because it has been five years since the Mariners were in a dumping mode. But it happens somewhere every year, particularly with high-payroll teams that underachieve to the point of being hopelessly out of contention.

"That's the only thing you hate about this game, the business part of it," said closer Eddie Guardado. "Guys want to be on one team for the rest of their career. You don't have that anymore. It just doesn't happen. It's a sad thing."
 
Yet the Mariners know also they have built their own rickety house, and they feel responsible for the fact it soon will be condemned. They understand that in many cases, they've put themselves on the block.

"If I was playing like I was capable of playing, I'll bet my name probably wouldn't be out there," said Boone.

"You've got to face reality, things might start changing," added Rich Aurilia. "That's part of the game. We as a team, no one in here, has lived up to our potential. If we all did, we'd be right in the mix right now. We haven't. That's a whole 'nother story for another time, but that's just the way it is. That's reality."

The reality is that the only players who have control over their destiny are the ones with no-trade clauses, plus those with 10 years in the major leagues, the last five with the Mariners — Jamie Moyer, Edgar Martinez and Dan Wilson. These "10-5" players can veto any trade.

Aurilia noted wryly that he has a limited no-trade clause.

"But I don't think they'd trade me to Montreal, Toronto or Detroit," he said. "I don't think mine is going to come into play too much."

Right now, every player is being forced to play with the thought in his mind — what if? Those with veto rights are formulating their answer. Those without can't help but contemplate scenarios.

"If the team here decides they want to trade me to the Yankees, going from the last-place team to the first-place team, it would be great," said Myers. "But I'm having fun here and I really enjoy my time. I don't plan on going anywhere right now, unless they call me into the office."

At that point, Myers said, he figures the message will be one of two things: "I'm getting released or getting traded.

"But even if it was meant to be you're going to get traded away, you've still got to keep doing your job now."

This is what the 2004 Mariners have wrought: professionalism amid insecurity.

"Obviously, we never thought we'd be in the situation we're in now," Guardado said. "We have talent here. For some reason, it's not clicking. I probably speak for everyone when I say, when you make a commitment to a team, whether it's two years, three years, you want to stick to that commitment. I try to be as loyal as possible. I think I've been loyal a long time. We'll see what happens. When the phone rings, I'm ready to pitch. That's my job."

But sometimes when the phone rings, there is an altogether different meaning.

Larry Stone: 206-464-3146 or lstone@seattletimes.com