M's Notebook | After long process, Ichiro signs new deal

A drawn-out, soul-searching process that finally saw Ichiro put his signature on a new contract Friday didn't gather steam until the Mariners began winning in late May.

That's what Mariners president Chuck Armstrong, the club's lead negotiator on the deal, indicated Friday after locking up Seattle's franchise player through 2012. The five-year extension is worth $90 million in salary and a signing bonus combined, but added interest paid on deferred money takes its total value higher.

It remains to be seen how much dollar value Ichiro will bring back to a Mariners team that has now resolved its biggest off-field distraction. The Mariners say winning adds to their bottom line more than anything, and that the Ichiro deal frees them up to focus on building off this year's recent on-field success.

"If it was easy to do, it wouldn't have taken us 6 ½ months," Armstrong said of the negotiations. "There were ebbs and flows. And there were times when perhaps we weren't as actively engaged in discussions as we were other times.

"But I can tell you, for the last six or seven weeks, maybe the last two months, it's been every day."

That time frame coincides roughly with the point when the Mariners began to win. Seattle opened a series at Tampa Bay on May 22 and won six of its next seven contests — including its first three-game series sweep of the season in Kansas City.

There have been fits and starts since. But the team's 31-15 record since May 22 is the best in baseball.

"If you look at the potential on this team," Ichiro said through an interpreter at a Safeco Field news conference on Friday, "you can understand why our record is where we're at right now."

Ichiro agreed that the club's winning ways may have given him added incentive to sign.

"That's a possibility," he said.

"Now I have the opportunity to be on one team for a long time," he added. "And very few players have the opportunity to do that. I'm very grateful for the opportunity to at least be here for the next 5 ½ years. And I will do my very best to play 10 more years here after that."

Such a scenario would take Ichiro to the cusp of his 50th birthday.

The 33-year-old had expressed his interest in exploring the free-agency process from the outset of spring training in February. He said he wanted to keep his options open and see how the team performed on the field.

Along the way, with each road trip to cities like Boston, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco, he tried to envision what it would be like to play there.

"When you look at where he would or could have gone as a free agent, they're all big-market teams," said agent Tony Attanasio, seated alongside his client during Friday's news conference. "California, New York, Massachusetts. He went to those areas. And he's smart enough and intelligent enough to really put himself and project himself playing in a different uniform at those spots.

"He did exactly that. And what it boiled down to is, he wanted to stay home."

Ichiro denied that the departure of former manager Mike Hargrove helped speed up the decision to sign. The pair had their differences over the years, but Ichiro declared it a non-issue.

"I can't say there was a particular day when I decided," he said. "During the season, we go to different teams, different places on the road. The fans from opposing teams always told me, 'Please stay here. Please come here. Please come to our team.'

"To be honest, I was moved during those times. Also, the fans in Japan asked me to come back to Japan to play.

"But in the end, when I came back to Seattle and the fans here asked me to stay here, that was a moment that meant the most to me. And that's when I decided."

The contract has already been denounced by Marlins president David Samson as being bad for baseball. Armstrong and Samson have exchanged e-mails on the issue, and the Mariners say the deal isn't all that exceptional.

"I don't think it was groundbreaking," Mariners general manager Bill Bavasi said. "It was tough to get to, I'm sure. When you're dealing with great players, there's a lot of ground to cover. From my point of view, I think everything was appropriate."

The total dollar value pales in comparison to the 10-year, $252 million contract received by Alex Rodriguez when he left Seattle and signed with the Rangers after the 2000 season. And Ichiro is emerging as a most valuable player candidate this season, and would have commanded a hefty sum on the open market.

Attanasio joked that Samson "obviously never heard of Mr. Hicks, or the Texas Rangers and something that happened there. I don't know what he's talking about, but obviously he doesn't know much about baseball."

He explained that there are differences in how the players' association perceives the total value of a contract, versus what gets reported in the media.

In this case, the reported $17 million per season being paid to Ichiro, along with a $5 million signing bonus, gets noted as a $90 million deal.

But the players' association will take into account the fact there is no sales tax in Washington when calculating the total value of the deal. Ichiro is also to receive interest on some deferred money in the deal, though that amount as not been disclosed.

"Great players are flashpoints for clubs, and this is a great player," Bavasi said. "He is known everywhere. As a great player, when you're in this city, you see how he impacts fans."

Notes

• LHP Horacio Ramirez is to rejoin the starting rotation on Monday after completing a minor-league rehabilitation assignment. The team has yet to announce whose roster spot will be taken, but LHP Ryan Feierabend remains a candidate to be returned to Class AAA Tacoma.

• Injured RH reliever Mark Lowe, recovering from offseason elbow surgery, threw a perfect inning of relief for Tacoma on Thursday. In three outings for Tacoma, he has tossed 2-1/3 scoreless innings, allowing three hits, two walks and striking out four.

"He's coming along real well," Mariners manager John McLaren said, adding that Lowe's next assignment will be with the team's Class AA affiliate in West Tennessee. "We're real happy with him. If he keeps this up, he'll be coming back soon."

• The Mariners have signed 31-year-old pitcher Tomo Ohka to a AAA contract. Ohka, who was released earlier this season by both the Cardinals and Blue Jays, had discussions with the Mariners last winter before signing as a free agent with Toronto, where he went 2-5 with a 5.79 earned-run average in 10 starts. Bavasi said the acquisition was made primarily to bolster AAA pitching depth.

For the record

Streak: L1

Home: 28-16

Road: 22-21

vs. AL West: 15-11

vs. L.A.: 2-7

vs. Oakland: 7-2

vs. Texas: 6-2

vs. AL East: 15-7

vs. AL Cent.: 11-10

vs. NL: 9-9

vs. LHP: 16-7

vs. RHP: 34-30

Day: 15-11

Night: 35-26

One-run: 15-11

Extra innings: 3-1

Home attendance

Friday's crowd: 37,393

Season total: 1,384,768

Biggest crowd: 46,340 (June 22)

Smallest crowd: 16,555 (May 2)

Average (44 dates): 31,472

2006 average (43 dates): 27,944