Mariners land Silva

It was late last week that the push to land new Mariners pitcher Carlos Silva kicked into full throttle.

The Mariners had just been spurned by free-agent pitcher Hiroki Kuroda and needed to find another place to spend roughly $11 million over the next four years. They stepped up their efforts on Silva, a 28-year-old middle-of-the-road starter for the Minnesota Twins the past few seasons, and this time got their man.

Silva agreed to a four-year package, reported to be worth $44 million, on Wednesday and should be introduced by the team this afternoon. A source said the deal was pending the outcome of a routine physical, which is why the team was waiting on announcing its biggest signing of the offseason.

"Going into this, I made a list of all the free-agent starters who were available," new Mariners pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre said Wednesday night after a reporter told him the deal was done. "And to be honest with you, he was at the top of my list because of his background and the type of pitcher that he is."

The team had Stottlemyre place a call to Silva late last week to help sell him on the merits of coming to Seattle.

"We just talked about the ballpark, the city, our coaching staff," Stottlemyre said. "We talked about the ability we have to provide a winner if we get the pieces we want. And he was one of those."

Stottlemyre says that Silva, a sinker-ball specialist who went 13-14 with a 4.19 earned-run average for the Twins last season, helps the Mariners because of his ability to go deeper into games. Silva went seven or more innings in a dozen of his starts last season — tying him with Felix Hernandez for the most by any of Seattle's pitchers.

Silva also doesn't walk many batters, though his strikeout rate of 3.97 batters per nine innings is very low for a starter being paid this much money. The bottom line is, much of Silva's success could depend on how well the fielders behind him get to balls put in play.

"I think Safeco is a pretty good field for him," Stottlemyre said. "He's a very good ground-ball pitcher."

Stottlemyre figures Seattle's infielders are up to the task, even with second baseman Jose Lopez still a huge question mark heading into 2008. Stottlemyre also said the fact that fly balls don't carry all that well at Safeco should work to Silva's favor better than the Metrodome in Minneapolis did.

Mariners manager John McLaren said once the deal is announced, his team's rotation should already be better than it was last year. That rotation was burned by the back-end flops of Jeff Weaver and Horacio Ramirez. Weaver has already departed as a free agent.

Silva should slot in anywhere from No. 2 to No. 4 in the rotation behind Hernandez. He is very similar, in terms of results, stats and the pitch-to-contact approach of incumbent Mariners starters Miguel Batista and Jarrod Washburn.

"He looks like a real good strike-thrower for us," McLaren said of Silva. "We hope that he does what Miguel Batista did for us last year."

Batista was a 16-game-winner and — like Silva — will likely have to depended greatly on the fielders behind him. But Batista, while walking far more batters than Silva, does have a greater ability to escape jams via strikeouts.

And it remains to be seen if Silva alone will have what it takes to put the Mariners in a better spot at contending for the American League West crown.

Much of that will depend on what happens next. McLaren said the Mariners are still in the hunt for Johan Santana of the Twins and Erik Bedard of the Orioles.

But the reality is, with the Silva signing, the Mariners might no longer have the stomach to foot the rumored $125 million price tag it would take to sign Santana once trading for him. A more likely scenario would be the Mariners dealing top prospect Adam Jones and at least one or two others in order to snag Bedard — who is still arbitration-eligible and under team control for two more seasons.

Talks between Mariners general manager Bill Bavasi and Orioles counterpart Andy McPhail have been ongoing since the winter meetings ended. The prime competition for the Mariners appears to be the Cincinnati Reds, though several other clubs have expressed interest in the Canadian left-hander.

"Bill's working hard," McLaren said of Bavasi. "This signing is a good upgrade for us. Hopefully, we hear something announced soon."

Geoff Baker: 206-464-8286 or gbaker@seattletimes.com