Moyer set to return as Mariners whiff on trade front

DALLAS — With ambitious trade scenarios crumbling around them at the winter meetings, the Mariners for much of Wednesday also faced the unsavory prospect of losing team institution Jamie Moyer.

In the end, Moyer and the club reached agreement on a one-year contract that will bring him back for an 11th season in Seattle. And they didn't stop there.

The Mariners are also on the verge of signing free-agent outfielder Carl Everett to a contract, addressing their need for a left-handed bat. If nothing goes wrong, the signing of Everett, a 34-year-old switch-hitter, could be announced any day, but possibly not until next week. The Mariners need to clear a spot on the 40-man roster for Everett, who hit .251 with 23 homers and 87 RBI for the Chicago White Sox last year and figures to serve as Seattle's designated hitter.

Meanwhile, with Scott Boras positioning Kevin Millwood for a five-year contract that the Mariners have no intention of giving, the club has made Matt Morris its primary free-agent pitching target. The Giants and Rangers are their top competitors.

The Mariners also made a minor trade, sending catcher Yorvit Torrealba to the Colorado Rockies for a player to be named. The player was announced this morning as right-handed pitcher Marcos Carvajal. To make room for the 21-year-old, who was 0-2, with a 5.09 earned-run average in 39 games for the Rockies last year, the Mariners designated right-handed pitcher Jeff Harris for assignment. Carvajal spent last season in Colorado after being chosen by Milwaukee in the Rule 5 draft and traded to the Rockies.

Moyer, 43, will receive a $5.5 million base salary, plus another $1 million possible in incentives — $200,000 each for working 160, 170, 180, 190 and 200 innings.

"I feel good — I'm happy it's done and over with," Moyer said in a conference call with Seattle reporters. "I can continue my workouts ... I don't know if it went down completely to the wire, but it got fairly close."

The Moyer deal was finalized less than four hours before the deadline for the Mariners to offer him arbitration. They almost certainly would have declined to do so, which would have ended their negotiating rights with the left-hander until May 1 and ensured he would play elsewhere next year.

"I kind of expected they wouldn't offer arbitration, so I knew if something was going to happen with the Seattle Mariners today, it would have gotten done by 9 o'clock," Moyer said.

Moyer said he had received interest from "a couple" of other teams.

That prospect apparently proved too dire for Seattle to allow. Though Bavasi said the M's "ended up with a fair deal, a deal the club is real happy with," the M's may have paid Moyer — who served as his own agent — more than they would have liked. Whether that will compromise their ability to spend on prime free-agent pitching remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, after striking out on a potential trade — believed to be for Florida center fielder Juan Pierre — on Tuesday, the Mariners had another deal blow up Wednesday.

"An element we were waiting for has reportedly moved elsewhere," Bavasi said.

Two late deals came down here Wednesday night, with Milwaukee's Lyle Overbay going to Toronto and Alfonso Soriano going to Washington in a trade that included left-handed-hitting outfielder Brad Wilkerson. A Brewers source said Milwaukee was not talking to Seattle about Overbay on Wednesday.

During his early-evening media briefing, Bavasi had indicated the club had another deal it was still hopeful of consummating.

"There's a nice deal we'd like to do," he said. "There was one last night we came up short on. We made a large offer. They just don't work sometimes. So we're sitting here."

But that second trade apparently fell apart just like Tuesday's, which the Mariners knew was a distinct possibility for deals that Bavasi called "a reach."

"They'd be significant moves that would start another domino or two falling," he said. "But they're ambitious efforts. So the likelihood of getting them done is not real high. But the return would be real good for us."

The Marlins wound up trading Pierre to the Cubs for right-hander Sergio Mitre and Class AA pitchers Ricky Nolasco and Renyel Pinto. Referring to Seattle's unsuccessful trade, Bavasi said, "We were willing to move some pretty significant young guys."

Bavasi added, "[Tuesday] I'd say we were much, much closer to getting something done than we were today. They asked for three specific names and we said yes, only to have the club tell us 20 minutes later: 'We have a better deal elsewhere.' "

The Mariners have the drawback, Bavasi said, of not having surpluses of talent, so any deal could create a new hole.

"We can't just do one deal," he said. "We have to do one that triggers another that triggers another."

Bavasi indicated the club was willing to be patient in its efforts as the winter meetings enter their final day.

"We don't have to pop a deal now," he said. "There's at least one deal we could make. It's a real gamble. It would improve one aspect of our club, and blow a hole in another. We'd have to say, well, we'll figure that out later. ... If you do that, there's no rush to put yourself in a hole."

The Mariners are now more likely to turn to the free-agent market to fill their needs.

"If I was betting on what a club like us would do, that's a better bet," Bavasi said. "What we're trying to do is ambitious. The most conventional way to go about it is a free agent or two."

Boras, conspicuously inconspicuous during the winter meetings, finally addressed the media and made it clear that he will demand a five-year contract for Millwood.

"I think any player wants the market for what his services are, and a guy like Kevin Millwood is a five-year guy, sure," Boras said. "Performance-wise and age-wise, he fits into that role."

Though Boras said the Mariners "are focusing on dominant starting pitching" in their meetings with him, and that they will continue to meet, a five-year demand is almost certainly a deal-breaker for Seattle.

Morris may be willing to sign for three years. He was 14-10 with a 4.11 ERA last season for St. Louis.

Jacque Jones' camp was expecting the Mariners to come forward with an offer to the outfielder, but by early evening none had been received.

The other outfielders on Seattle's radar were Jeromy Burnitz and Everett, with Everett getting the call despite his controversial history.

The Mariners declined to offer arbitration to free agents Dave Hansen, Shigetoshi Hasegawa, Jeff Nelson and Pokey Reese, effectively ending their Mariners careers. Seattle, which can't negotiate with those players until May 1, also declined arbitration for Dan Wilson, who retired.

Larry Stone: 206-464-3146 or lstone@seattletimes.com. Times reporter Bob Finnigan contributed to this report.