M's believe Washburn is good fit for Safeco

After flirting this winter with the likes of A.J. Burnett, Matt Morris and Kevin Millwood, the Mariners have finally made a big-ticket pitching acquisition, their primary stated goal of the offseason.

It's left-hander Jarrod Washburn, and the Mariners are banking $37.5 million over the next four years — the biggest pact they've ever given a pitcher — that he can help prop up an under-achieving rotation.

"We really felt we had to get a better pitcher into our rotation, along with making our pitchers a little better," said general manager Bill Bavasi, who was the Angels' GM when they drafted Washburn in the second round in 1995. "This is the first step toward that."

Washburn, 31, has gone 29-31 over the last three seasons since winning 18 games for the World Series-champion Angels in 2002.

But the Mariners see Washburn, a pronounced fly-ball pitcher, as a good fit at spacious Safeco Field. The ballpark, in fact, was one of their best recruiting tools — along, of course, with their decision to give the Scott Boras client the club's first four-year pitching contract since reliever Arthur Rhodes before the 2000 season.

"I've seen almost all the parks in the league now, and Safeco Field is still my favorite park," Washburn said at his introductory news conference on Monday. "I've always loved it when I've come here, and I've always pitched well in this stadium."

Washburn is leaving the first-place team in the AL West the past two years for the last-place club in both those seasons, but said he believes the Mariners are headed upward.

"Every time we played the Mariners last year, I looked at the guys they had on the team and couldn't believe they weren't winning more games," he said.

"I felt they were just lacking some better pitching. I think I can improve that for the Mariners, and I'm looking forward to that challenge."

It didn't take Washburn long to realize he had picked the right winter to become a free agent. The huge contracts given Burnett, Morris, Kenny Rogers, et al, made that point increasingly obvious.

But after signing the first multi-year contract of his career, Washburn downplayed his financial windfall.

"I live in a small town in northwest Wisconsin [Danbury]," he said. "It doesn't cost a lot to live there. I'm not into fancy things. I drive a pickup truck and that's it. Money's never been a huge issue to me."

The Mariners realized as the winter progressed that they would have to pay far more than they may have intended to get a new arm for the rotation. Even one that doesn't project as a top-of-the-rotation starter

"The market is what it is," said Bavasi. "We knew what the brackets were, up and down, and we slipped him in."

In Washburn, they get a 75-57 lifetime pitcher whose 2.65 road earned-run average was the second lowest in the American League last year. Boras said the Mariners first made contact with him regarding Washburn at the general managers' meetings in Palm Springs, Calif., in November.

"The great thing about this, Bill knows Wash so well from their relationship with the Angels," Boras said. "He knows what kind of person he is, and what kind of player he is."

Washburn said he feels he's a better pitcher now than he has ever been. He said he got away from being a fastball-oriented pitcher in 2003 as the result of a shoulder injury suffered in a fall during a spring-training drill.

"I'm pretty stubborn and don't like missing time, and I kept pitching through it," he said. "I lost some zip on my fastball that year."

The upside, Washburn added, was that he developed confidence in his breaking balls and changeups. The Mariners gave Washburn an extensive physical on Monday and were satisfied with the results. He served time on the disabled list last August for a strained forearm.

Bavasi, meanwhile, said the Mariners are still looking to upgrade the club, "but I don't think it will be through any free-agent signings like this."

The team is engaged in ongoing trade talks involving Jeremy Reed, who could yield another starting pitcher. Bavasi indicated that any other acquisitions are likely aimed at improving their depth — "players that can back up or threaten some of the guys we have — in a good way. There's a lot of fine-tuning to go through."

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