GM Jack Zduriencik says Beltre could stick with Mariners

INDIANAPOLIS — The winter meetings threw out their ceremonial first blockbuster on Tuesday — pending physicals, of course.

In a related development, an unnamed team is said to be on the verge of trading for Milton Bradley — pending the executive who takes on that $21 million headache having his head examined.

The Mariners tried hard to get in on the Curtis Granderson action as the three-way trade unfolded. But in the end, they were unwilling to give up the package of young players that might have enticed Detroit to wheel and deal with them rather than the Yankees (who got Granderson) and Diamondbacks (who got ripped off).

That's not to say the Mariners didn't take center stage on Day 2 of the winter meetings. They were the first (and so far only) team to hold a real, live news conference to announce a transaction — what general manager Jack Zduriencik jokingly called "the best-kept secret of the winter meetings."

He was referring, of course, to the official Chone Figgins signing, a mere five days (and apparently a lot of blood work) in the making.

The surprise wasn't in the Figgins acquisition, the details of which surfaced back when Tiger Woods was still admired for being a strong family man.

The surprise was in the ancillary bit of news that accompanied it — that Adrian Beltre is still on the Mariners' radar. Zduriencik had hinted a day earlier that they weren't closing any doors to Beltre even if he turned down their arbitration offer, which he indeed did at the crack of midnight.

Many of us wrote that off as typical GM talk. But when Zduriencik introduced Figgins to the masses as an infielder of unknown destination, it was clear that he was serious about Beltre. And when Zduriencik huddled up last night with Beltre's agent, Scott Boras, it was clear that this notion might not just have legs, but feet — adorned with running shoes.

Zduriencik, after all, had no need to posture, or to try to mollify Boras, if their interest in Beltre isn't sincere. The Mariners are in the rare position of having leverage on His Borasness.

They have an outstanding third-base option in Figgins. That's the position he played, and well, for the Angels. If Beltre doesn't like the Mariners' terms for a potential return, the club doesn't have to do the Boras Shuffle. They simply move on.

But if the market for Beltre hasn't developed as robustly as he, or Boras, thought it would, the Mariners might be able to land a Gold Glove third baseman at their price.

"If in the end, he's our third baseman, we'll be very happy," Zduriencik said of Figgins. "If we have to play him someplace else, it's because we've deemed that as a good fit."

The ramifications of that latter outcome, of course, would be profound, starting with the likelihood of Figgins playing second base. Then Jose Lopez, if not traded, becomes a first-base candidate, and the Mariners will have to decide if their remaining disposable income would be best used on power, defense, pitching, or a combination thereof.

And in that spirit, the hallways, internets and executive washrooms were once again buzzing with Mariner-related rumors. One of the most endearing involved an old favorite, free agent Mike Cameron, who has emerged as one of Seattle's options to fill the team's left-field vacancy.

As astute Seattle Times blog commenter "rawr" pointed out, in reference to Cameron, Franklin Gutierrez, Ichiro and Ken Griffey Jr., "If Cameron was on board, all 4 of the best CF's in Mariners history would be on the 2010 roster."

"Mike loved playing in Seattle," said Cameron's agent, Mike Nicotera. "He loved the city, and felt like he grew up there as a player. It's where he became the guy he is now."

Where the Mariners go from here, not even Zduriencik appeared to know.

"We're juggling a lot of balls, trying to figure out how this whole thing is going to come together," he said.

So they continue to kick the tires on big-ticket items like Jason Bay and John Lackey. They continue to keep in touch with high-risk, high-reward options like Rich Harden. They continue to monitor Plan B's like Cameron, Marlon Byrd, Nick Johnson and Hank Blalock.

And Zduriencik, no doubt, keeps working on surreptitious moves that no one, not even the ubiquitous mlbtraderumors.com, has yet rooted out.

"You know how this works," said Zduriencik. "It's slow, and then all of a sudden, boom. You may go down there tomorrow and there's three, four or five things, and all of a sudden everyone is running through that lobby. One guy signs or is traded, and there's that domino effect."

After that, it's all over but the blood work.

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