Tomorrow is the start of the free-agency period, where the Mariners can window-shop for some of the bigger names from other teams. But those squads can do the same thing for Mariners' free agents as well.

The only name Mariners fans should really be concerned about is first baseman Russell Branyan, who enjoyed a breakout season in 2009 and has expressed a desire to remain in Seattle. The M's attempted to get a deal done during the 15-day window of exclusivity that followed the World Series, but, with that clock ticking down, nothing has been announced.

"Nothing is imminent,'' Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik told me moments ago.

Now, there is nothing preventing the M's from going out and signing Branyan tomorrow, or Saturday, or next Wednesday. That part won't change, The only thing that will is that other teams will now be able to negotiate with Branyan as well -- perhaps driving up his price.

"Any player goes into free agency, they're testing to see what's out there,'' Zduriencik said. "And you become one of 30 clubs that can negotiate with him.''

As for Seattle's other free agents, it was always assumed Adrian Beltre would test the open market, so the fact he hasn't re-signed with Seattle is nothing to be surprised about. With Mike Sweeney, there will be limited demands for his services and the M's want to see how their off-season starts slotting out before any commitments in that direction. Erik Bedard should attract some interest, but no one really knows how he's going to rebound from shoulder surgery, so expect some incentive-heavy offers if and when anyone gets a handle on his progress. Miguel Batista? Safe to say he's done in Seattle.

And so, there is Branyan. Let's see what happens from here and whether the M's get a deal squeezed in over the next few hours.

"We don't have anything done right now,'' Zduriencik said. "But that said, there's nothing stopping the player from accepting an offer at any time.''

One thing of note that crossed my desk today.

Bill James just released his Strong Seasons Leading Index list of the 10 players he thinks are most likely to sustain or improve upon their high performances next year. He also put out a list of 10 players least likely to do so.

Guess which list Branyan made?

One day after finishing second in the Cy Young Award race, Felix Hernandez has something more to add to his trophy shelf. I've seen it and it's pretty cluttered already, but this is something he'll hold close to his heart.

It's the Luis Aparicio Award, given to the player chosen as the best Venezuelan in the majors. That's Aparicio himself handing the award to Hernandez at a winter ball game in Maracaibo, Venezuela earlier today. Our contacts down in Venezuela, at Diario Panorama (the guys who got the Adam Jones interview on the Erik Bedard trade two years ago) supplied the info and photo.

Considering all of the quality Venezuelans in the majors, it's quite an accomplishment. Given how badly Hernandez wants to play winter ball in front of his countrymen -- something he's not allowed by the team to do -- I'd say this was a thrill for him.

Photo Credit: Luis Bravo/Diario Panorama

Looks like three surgeries is all Rob Johnson is going to need this off-season. Johnson met earlier today with team medical director Edward Khalfayan and they both went over an MRI taken previously on Johnson's elbow. It was determined that while there is some inflamation and a small bone spur in the elbow, it's nothing that will require an operation.

"I'm really excited about that,'' Johnson told me moments ago.

Johnson said his arm was feeling strong towards the end of the season and that his throwing times to second base were in "the high 1.7 (seconds)'s and 1.8's.''

In other words, this is something he can work through with physical therapy.

Johnson is recovering from surgery No. 3, a minor procedure done yesterday to repair ligament damage in his wrist. The operation took only an hour and Johnson was awake and watched the procedure on a video monitor -- his arm numbed, of course.

"It was a really cool thing to see,'' he said. "The doctor showed me what the good side looked like, then showed me the bad side. By the time he was done, the bad side looked exactly the same as the good side.''

In the end, the damage to the ligament was not as extensive as Johnson had first feared it might be. He'll now continue to recover from that operation and a pair of recent hip procedures and expects to be fully ready to start spring training.

Photo Credit: AP

Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu sensed before today's AL Manager of the Year Award came down that Mike Scioscia of the Angels would be the winner. Tough to argue, given what that Angels team went through this season, especially early on.

There were injuries to key starting pitchers John Lackey and Ervin Santana, then later sluggers Torii Hunter and Vladimir Guerrero. But the biggest clubhouse blow of them all was the death of pitcher Nick Adenhart when the car he was riding in was struck by an alleged drunk driver.

The Angels were emotionally devastated by the death. At the time, remember, they drifted a half-dozen games back of the division lead and seemed prime to be knocked out of the race before the month of May was even done.

But they always held it together. They never quite fell back far enough to make their eventual comeback seem an impossible task. They came close. But they never broke. And for that, in the mind of Wakamatsu and very likely several BBWAA voters, that was a huge reason to give Scioscia the nod.

"I think everybody knew they were going to come back because they'd had some devastating injuries,'' said Wakamatsu, who tied for fourth in voting along with Texas manager Ron Washington. "What I respect about him most was the way he handled the tragedy. He did a great job of respecting the family, in his comments to the media, and using the whole thing in a positive way, if that's even possible to do.

"That club could have gone either way. He made sure they stayed on-track long enough until all of those injured guys came back.''

Rob Johnson is undergoing wrist surgery as we speak. I spoke to him earlier this afternoon, when he was on his way to the Seattle clinic where the procedure was to take place. The surgery will be exploratory to start, then any damage that needs fixing will be taken care of in what will be a day procedure of only a few hours.

The good news for Johnson is that it now appears he won't need a fourth surgery, this one on his elbow. Johnson had the elbow looked at last Friday and for now, it appears that any soreness can be resolved through therapy.

That's good news, since the catcher had his second hip operation of the off-season two weeks ago and now is getting the procedure on his wrist. Johnson will meet tomorrow with team medical director Dr. Edward Khalfayan, who will make a final call on any possible elbow surgery.

"Right now, it doesn't look like I'll need it,'' Johnson said. "Getting put under three times in a month already, I'm just about done with the whole surgery thing.''

But Johnson says he feels great. The lingering pain from both hips, which plagued him through the latter part of the season, is now history. He's still got a bit of a limp from the most recent hip operation, but other than that, his rehabilitation is advancing on schedule and he feels he'll be OK to start the season.

"The big thing is that all of my injuries needed attention,'' he said. "But none of it is surgery that's going to knock me down for six or nine months.''

Johnson had heard the results of the Cy Young voting when I called and told me he wasn't overly shocked that Zack Greinke was the runaway winner. Johnson said he felt both Greinke and Felix Hernandez had seasons worthy of a Cy Young win and that Hernandez could have taken home the prize in just about any year.

Photo Credit: AP

Just got off the phone with Mariners pitching coach Rick Adair, who said Felix Hernandez should be proud of what he accomplished this season. Hernandez finished a distant second to Zack Greinke of the Kansas City Royals in Cy Young Award voting announced today.

"We're all extremely proud of him and not just from a performance standpoint,'' Adair said. "As the season went on, he also showed some leadership that the team needed.

"Felix is going to get better,'' Adair said. "We're excited about it. I just think overall, he's going to become more efficient. His stuff is so good and has so much movement, that at times it causes him to struggle with his command. But as I said, as he moves forward, i think he's going to have better command and become more efficient.''

Adair felt Greinke had a good year and accepts that voters felt he was deserved of the award. But he also said Hernandez had a year that could be considered as good if not better.

The difference may have been Greinke's fast start versus that of Hernandez, who didn't really get going until late May.

Adair attributed the difference to Hernandez's "willingness to make some adjustments and just take things a little more serious.''

Hernandez was deadly serious towards season's end. Since June, he failed to go seven innings just four times. A total of 24 of his final 25 starts were so-called "quality starts" of at least six innings with three earned runs or fewer allowed.

Greinke needed a season for the ages to have a shot at beating Hernandez. That's what he produced. In the end, it doesn't diminish Hernandez at all. The interesting thing will be to see which of these two pitchers goes on to have the better career.

This comes as little surprise, but Zack Greinke of the Kansas City Royals today was named the runaway winner of the 2009 AL Cy Young Award. Felix Hernandez of the Mariners placed a distant second, beating out the likes of C.C. Sabathia, Justin Verlander and Roy Halladay.

Greinke received 25 first-place votes from BBWAA voting members, while Hernandez had 2 and Verlander 1.

Hernandez also received 23 second-place votes, the most of any pitcher. Greinke had three second-place votes and Sabathia the other two.

In total points, Greinke had 134, Hernandez 80, Verlander 14, Sabathia 13 and Halladay 11.

Needless to say, the voters got it right.

You can talk all you want about the lack of run support Hernandez recieved. I heard one commenter on radio today opine that Hernandez could have won 23 games if not for a terrible Mariners offense. That much is true. But the same could be said for Greinke, who had an offense just as woeful at times and played in front of one of the worst defenses in all of baseball.

If you look at Fielding Independant Pitching, which measures how a pitcher fared regardless of the defense behind him, Greinke scored a 2.33 compared to 3.09 by Hernandez.

Like I said, the best guy won. A great year by Hernandez. But the wrong year to have it in.

Great to be back after spending the past week and a half in Costa Rica. As usual, it seems like I didn't miss too much. Ken Griffey Jr. is back another year, I see. Sounds like an astute move to me. I also think the Dallas Cowboys are going to go places with that quarterback of theirs. I mean, what's not to like about Troy Aikman? Besides, that Emmitt Smith dude is one tough running back.

Let's not get all over that first-term democrat in the White House either. He's looking like a two-termer. You know what they say, a strong marriage is the backbone of a strong country, or something like that. Besides, he played a mean sax on The Arsenio Hall Show.

As for the Seahawks, I'd give their coaching staff another year or so to implement their offensive scheme, bring in their own personnel and see some injured players heal. So, let's not jump all over them just yet. Besides, if things don't work out, I hear that Mike Holmgren could be persuaded to leave Green Bay.

Wait a minute, what's that? It's not really 1995? We're almost in 2010 already? Oh. Well then, please forget everything I just wrote.

Let's talk about present-day then, and one of the true franchise players for the Mariners. I'm speaking, of course, about pitcher Felix Hernandez, a contender for the AL Cy Young Award, the winner of which is to be announced at 11 a.m.

Back in September, I handed out our local BBWAA Awards down on the field before a game and got to give Hernandez his plaque after he'd been selected as the Mariners' Pitcher of the Year.

As Hernandez came out of the dugout to receive his award, we shook hands and I told him: "You fulfilled your destiny this year, and, in the end, that's more important than any award you'll ever receive.''

He thanked me and took his prize. Not sure he heard what I told him as it was pretty loud, with fans giving him a nice ovation.

But I meant what I said to him. When all is said and done, this game -- and just about any job you do in life -- will always be about realizing one's potential. In Hernandez's case, that was a tall order. He had so much pressure placed on him at such a young age and so many lofty expectations to meet.

But he did it. At age 23. Think about it. Hernandez might go on to enjoy many repeat seasons like this one. But the truth is that, statistically, he might never enjoy a better year than this one. As fans of the game, we really can't ask for more from a pitcher than what Hernandez supplied this season. Maybe a little more consistency through and through. But from late-May onward, he turned things up several notches and more than compensated for the mediocre start. Can he carry that through over an entire year? I don't know. But I don't think it's realistic to expect a pitcher to carry that pace over an entire six months. What Hernandez gave us this year was about the best anyone can realistically expect. If he surprises us later on, then good on him. But for now, it's safe to say he fulfilled his destiny. Reached the heights expected of him for a single season. Go on to repeat that over and over, he'll go down as one of the all-time greats.

And that's something he can bask in. It's worth remembering that the greatest awards you can win come from meeting your potential. It's not about hardware. Hernandez should keep that in mind today.