Mariners offer arbitration to Adrian Beltre, but not to Erik Bedard

A calculated risk best describes the decision Tuesday by the Mariners to offer salary arbitration to free agent Adrian Beltre.

The third baseman was the only Mariners free agent to be offered arbitration, which the team declined to do with pitcher Erik Bedard. Beltre and Bedard are both classified as Type B free agents — meaning the Mariners could have received a compensatory draft pick next June had either refused an arbitration offer.

But there is a risk involved in offering players arbitration; namely, that the player could accept and the team be obliged to keep him for another year. That's a risk the team is willing to take with Beltre and general manager Jack Zduriencik added that he can still negotiate a deal with Bedard if he chooses.

"Any player that's a free agent, you can negotiate with any one of them," Zduriencik said. "He's no different than any other player who's a free agent now. We can continue to talk to him. We haven't shut the door on any players. All we've done is go through the process and the parameters that are available under the collective bargaining agreement."

Zduriencik declined to get into any specifics about the reasons behind his decisions on either Beltre or Bedard.

But the circumstances behind the free agency of both players clearly played a major role in why the team made the choices it did.

Beltre is seeking a multiyear contract and is expected to have a number of suitors, dramatically lessening the chances he'd accept a one-year arbitration deal with Seattle. He has until the end of next week to decide and the Mariners would receive a compensatory round pick — sandwiched between the first and second rounds of the June draft — if he declines arbitration and signs someplace else.

On the off chance Beltre does accept the arbitration offer, the Mariners would have one more year of one of the top fielding third basemen in the game — at a price close to the $12 million he earned last year — and one of the premier players in baseball if his bat returns to its 2004-2008 form. The Mariners, with rights to Beltre for another year, would also have a window to negotiate a longer deal with him that would replace the arbitration contract if they chose to do so.

Bedard's case is completely different, since he's coming off shoulder surgery and is not expected to start the 2010 season on time. Given that, the best offers he's likely to get will be incentive-laden and for much less in guaranteed money than he could make if he was to accept an arbitration offer from Seattle.

Most players tend to get raises or at least match their previous year's salary in the arbitration process. In Bedard's case, that would mean a 2010 salary of roughly $8 million, which is far more than any team will give him this winter and likely the main reason the Mariners declined to offer him arbitration.

"You're free to negotiate with them now," Zduriencik said. "You're just not bound to the arbitration process."

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

Read his daily blog at www.seattletimes.com/Mariners